[2] The capital statute for first-degree murder under Title 11, Chapter 42, Section 09, of the Delaware Code was fully repealed on September 26, 2024.
The statute was struck down in 2016 because the judge decided not only the sentence itself, but also some factual findings necessary to make the defendant eligible for capital punishment.
The Governor was allowed to grant a commutation of the death sentence, but only after receiving a recommendation of clemency from a board or advisory Group.
[11] Murder was punishable by death when it involved at least one of the following aggravating factors:[12] On June 13, 1986, the state adopted lethal injection as the default method of execution in Delaware.
[14] The last judicial execution by hanging in the United States was carried out in Delaware, on January 25, 1996, against convicted murderer Billy Bailey.
[18] The proposal gained some support after the murders of police officer Stephen Ballard and of corrections officer Steven Floyd Sr., in a February 2017 riot at the James T. Vaughn Correctional Center in Smyrna, Delaware, though the man who killed Ballard was later killed by law enforcement in a shootout.