Opinion ID: 2070705
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 16

Heading: Multiple Delineation Upheld Statutory Aggravating Circumstances

Text: In a preliminary argument, Stevenson alleges that Delaware's Death Penalty Statute has too many statutory aggravating circumstances (twenty-two) and, therefore, fails to genuinely narrow the class of murderers subject to the death penalty. Stevenson does not assert that the twenty-two statutory aggravating circumstances, considered individually, apply to every defendant convicted of murder or are unconstitutionally vague. See Tuilaepa v. California, 512 U.S. 967, 972, 114 S.Ct. 2630, 2635, 129 L.Ed.2d 750 (1994). Stevenson also does not argue that the statutory aggravating circumstances established in his own case were constitutionally infirm or excessive. His argument is simply that Delaware's Death Penalty Statute contains too many aggravators. An identical argument was considered and rejected in State v. Steckel, Del.Super., Cr.A. No. IN96-06-1760, Carpenter, J., 1996 WL 936121 (Dec. 11, 1996) (Mem.Op.) (denying Motion to Strike Death Penalty). In Steckel, the Superior Court observed that this Court approved the new death penalty statute in all respects when there were 18 statutory aggravating circumstances in State v. Cohen, Del. Supr., 604 A.2d 846, 848 (1992). At the time Steckel was decided, four additional aggravators had been added by the General Assembly, bringing the number to the current total of twenty-two. In Steckel, the Superior Court concluded that the Delaware statute is not inconsistent with the statutes in several other death penalty states. In this appeal, Stevenson has failed to demonstrate how the delineation of twenty-two otherwise valid statutory aggravating circumstances in the Delaware Death Penalty Statute makes his own death sentence unconstitutional or otherwise invalid. State v. Steckel, Del.Super., Cr.A. No. IN96-06-1760, Carpenter, J., 1996 WL 936121 (Dec. 11, 1996).