In Delaware the death penalty now has no moral basis.

If your friend is murdered, and you find the murderer and kill him, we
consider your action to also be murder. However we accept killing a
murderer as a moral act as long as it is brought about through the
justice system, because this is a decision sanctioned by the whole.

Without community sanction then, putting to death a murderer is also murder.

Over a year ago our State Senate passed a bill to repeal the death
penalty, and yet since that time the bill has not been allowed out of
the House Judiciary Committee for a vote by the House. The moral
justification for the death penalty in Delaware now rests solely on
the shoulders of the House Judiciary Committee.

I suggest that this is not a sufficient basis for the death penalty in
Delaware, and that it should be suspended until such time as we have a
clear expression of the citizens’ decision. It is hardly right to
expect our police to put their lives on the line enforcing such an
extreme punishment without solid community support.