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Convicted cop killer has appeal denied by Delaware Supreme Court
August 12, 2012
Dover, Delaware: The Delaware Supreme Court recently came to a decision and denied the appeal of 25-year-old convicted cop killer Derrick J. Powell. Powell has been sentenced to death for the September 2009 fatal shooting of Police Officer Chad Spicer.[1]
Powell's defense attorneys argued in July of 2012 that Powell's death sentencing "amounts to cruel and unusual punishment." The Delaware Supreme Court decision also stated that, "Powell claims that legal flaws in the police investigation of the homicide and in the jury trial fatally tainted his conviction, and that his death sentence is both unconstitutional and disproportionate to sentences handed down in similar past cases."[1]
Powell's defense attorneys continually argued that the evidence wasn't enough to warrant capital punishment, nor was it similar to the punishment of the two conspirators in the would-be robbery of a drug dealer that set of the police chase that ended in the death of Officer Chad Spicer. However, the Delaware Supreme Court decision found that "We conclude Powell's claims lack merit and affirm."[1]
Judge T. Henley Graves sentenced Powell to death in May of 2011 after a trial that went on for weeks, in which a Sussex County jury found Powell guilty and voted 7-5 for the death penalty.[1]
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