Does this man deserve to die?

Delaware doesn't have a death penalty, but some want one for killers of cops and other public servants.

Randon Wilkerson mugshot. Wilkerson was recently convicted of the April 2021 murder of Delmar police officer Cpl. Keith Heacook, and was sentenced to life in prison. But some want more.

If you’re from this area, you already know the story: Delmar Police Corporal Keith Heacook answered a call on the Delaware side of the line at oh-dark-hundred on a Sunday morning in April, 2021 and was ambushed by 30-year-old Randon Wilkerson, who beat Heacook into unconsciousness and caused enough head trauma to have the Corporal declared brain dead a few days later.

Last week, in a bench trial held in Sussex County, Wilkerson was found guilty of his crime 2 1/2 years later and was sentenced to life in prison. But we all know how “life” goes sometimes.

Thus, the circumstances surrounding the killing have prompted two local legislators to propose a bill for introduction when the Delaware General Assembly reconvenes in January. This bill, proposed by local House representatives Tim Dukes (who represents me as well as the Delaware half of the Town of Delmar) and Danny Short, would reinstate the death penalty for those convicted of murdering specific people. The list of those whose murder would be death penalty-eligible would be “police officer or public safety official,” presumably in the line of duty.

Unlike other states, the death penalty in Delaware wasn’t eliminated legislatively, but was killed off by the Delaware Supreme Court. Citing a 2016 decision by the United States Supreme Court in a Florida case (Hurst v. Florida, decided in an 8-1 decision with only Samuel Alito dissenting), the state’s high court threw out the death penalty on several grounds, with the most important of those being the rule where a judge could sentence the guilty party to death despite the jury recommending a life sentence. It was a law similar to Florida’s, which was thrown out directly by SCOTUS, and Alabama’s. (It’s worthy to note that both states have reinstated the death penalty with required changes since Hurst v. Florida. Only Delaware has not.)

Personally, I favor the death penalty for certain offenses, but there are two reasons this particular piece of legislation will never get off the ground.

For one, the legislator who attempted to cut off the death penalty via legislation is still around. Back in 2016, Rep. Sean Lynn was quoted by local media as saying, “Our end goal is to ensure that no death sentences are handed down in the future, and if the Supreme Court's decision accomplishes that, then that is an important consideration.” Unfortunately, Delaware has a lot of soft-on-crime legislators like Lynn who, when they’re not trying to write legislation that runs afoul of the Second Amendment, figure out ways to coddle criminals.

More importantly, there are a lot of prosecutors who feel the death penalty is just not worth the trouble and would testify against it just on those grounds. Local people also remember the last high-profile murder case in the area before Cpl. Heacook, that of 11-year-old Sarah Foxwell, whose body was found on Christmas Day of 2009 after a three-day search. While Wicomico County Sheriff Mike Lewis was adamant that the Foxwell case “screams for the death penalty,” then-prosecutor (now a judge) Matt Maciarello opted to accept a plea deal that condemned her killer to life in prison in order to spare Foxwell’s family. Given the fact that a judge can’t take it upon himself to sentence a condemned man to death, it’s likely any and all death penalty cases will have to go before a jury and involve the family. Even if the victim is a law enforcement officer who ostensibly risks his or her life daily, there would still be a hesitation about putting their surviving family through the trial - and the endless appeals sure to be employed by the defense to elude justice.

Finally, there is the issue of how the life of one person is worth more than that of another. Certainly there is value to the life of a law enforcement officer, but I don’t think we should differentiate between that particular occupation and others that may also be important - what about a fireman or a doctor? Or a lowly secretary or store clerk working hard to support her family as a single mom? Everyone is important, and singling out occupations where their homicides are eligible for the lethal injection smacks of some people being more equal than others.

It’s probably much ado over nothing given what I said about the soft-on-crime element of the Delaware General Assembly, but I think this deserves a larger debate.

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