State v. Dickerson

(for the Majority of the Court):

This certification presents the question of the constitutionality of capital punishment under our First Degree Murder Statute (11 Del.C. § 571)1 and our Recommendation of Mercy Statute (11 Del.C. § 3901),2 in the light of the recent decision of the United States Supreme Court in Furman v. Georgia, 408 U.S. 238, 92 S.Ct. 2726, 33 L.Ed.2d 346 (1972), dealing with capital punishment as “cruel and unusual” punishment under the Eighth and Fourteenth Amendments.

I

The defendant is awaiting trial on the charge of murder in the first degree in violation of 11 Del.C. §…