Title: Manley v. State
Citation: N/A
Docket Number: 165, 2018
State: Delaware
Issuer: Delaware Supreme Court
Date: December 6, 2018

IN THE SUPREME COURT OF THE STATE OF DELAWARE 
 
MICHAEL MANLEY,  
 
§ 
 
 
 
 
 
 
§ 
No. 165, 2018 
 
Defendant Below,  
 
§ 
Appellant,  
 
 
§ 
Court Below: Superior Court 
 
 
 
 
 
 
§ 
of the State of Delaware 
v. 
 
 
 
 
§ 
 
 
 
 
 
 
§ 
STATE OF DELAWARE, 
 
§  
Case ID No. 9511007022 
 
 
 
 
 
 
§ 
 
 
Plaintiff Below, 
 
 
§ 
 
Appellee. 
 
 
 
§ 
 
Submitted: December 5, 2018 
Decided: 
December 6, 2018 
 
Before STRINE, Chief Justice; VALIHURA and TRAYNOR, Justices. 
 
O R D E R 
 
(1) 
This appeal presents a familiar issue that has arisen multiple times since 
this Court’s opinions in Rauf v. State1 and Powell v. State,2 which respectively held 
that Delaware’s death penalty statute is unconstitutional and that Rauf’s holding 
applies retroactively.  Although we concluded in Powell that the defendant “must be 
sentenced to ‘imprisonment for the remainder of his natural life without benefit of 
probation or parole or any other reduction,’”3 a number of defendants who were 
convicted of first-degree murder and sentenced to death before Rauf have argued 
                                                          
 
1 145 A.3d 430 (Del. 2016). 
2 153 A.3d 69 (Del. 2016). 
3 Id. at 70–71. 
2 
 
that they must instead be resentenced to imprisonment for 15 years to life.  As these 
defendants see it, Rauf struck down the entirety of Delaware’s first-degree murder 
sentencing statute, not just the death penalty portion.  Thus, they argue, they must 
be resentenced under the still-valid sentencing statute for felonies generally (i.e., for 
15 years to life).4 
(2) 
The appellant and defendant below, Michael Manley, is another one of 
those defendants.  Although he tries hard to give his case a new constitutional gloss 
based on the Eighth and Fourteenth Amendments, we rejected those same arguments 
earlier this year in Cook v. State.5 
(3) 
Consistent with our prior decisions on this issue,6 we affirm the 
Superior Court’s judgment on the basis of its well-reasoned order denying Manley’s 
motion for resentencing.7  As we have now held many times, Rauf did not strike 
down the entirety of the first-degree murder statute—it struck down only the death 
penalty portion—and the proper sentence for a defendant convicted of first-degree 
murder is “imprisonment for the remainder of his natural life without benefit of 
probation or parole or any other reduction.”8 
                                                          
 
4 See 11 Del. C. § 4205(b)(1). 
5 181 A.3d 152, 2018 WL 1020106, at *1 (Del. 2018) (TABLE); see also Zebroski v. State, 179 
A.3d 855, 863 (Del. 2018). 
6 See, e.g., Cook, 2018 WL 1020106, at *1; Zebroski, 179 A.3d at 859–60, 863. 
7 State v. Manley, 2018 WL 1110420 (Del. Super. Ct. Feb. 28, 2018). 
8 11 Del. C. § 4209(a). 
3 
 
NOW, THEREFORE, IT IS ORDERED that the judgment of the Superior 
Court is AFFIRMED.   
 
 
 
 
 
 
BY THE COURT:  
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
/s/ Leo E. Strine, Jr. 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Chief Justice