Latest Case: Swan v. Delaware (Constitutional Law)

Death Penalty Opponents Should Rethink Their Support for Life Without Parole Sentences

AUSTIN SARAT

Austin Sarat—Associate Provost and Associate Dean of the Faculty and Professor of Jurisprudence & Political Science at Amherst College—argues that life sentences without the possibility of parole (LWOP) are as problematic and damaging as the death penalty. For this reason, Professor Sarat calls upon death penalty opponents to reconsider their support for LWOP sentences.

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Swan v. Delaware

Docket: 150, 2020

Opinion Date: March 1, 2021

Judge: Montgomery-Reeves

Areas of Law: Constitutional Law, Criminal Law

In 1996, two masked and camouflaged men crashed through the glass patio door of Kenneth Warren’s home. Warren was fatally shot in front of his wife and child during the subsequent struggle. Tina Warren, Kenneth’s wife, observed one assailant appeared to have been shot in the shoulder. The investigation went cold until Bridget Phillips, ex-wife of co-defendant Adam Norcross, contacted Delaware State Police in 1999. She explained that Norcross and appellant Ralph Swan had planned to rob a house, but found it occupied. Phillips added that the victim fired a shot and died because he tried to play hero. Police arrested Norcross and Swan in 2000. Both were indicted on three counts of first degree murder; one count of first degree robbery; one count of first degree burlgary; one count of second degree conspiracy; and multiple counts of possession of a deadly weapon during the commission of a felony. Swan was ultimately convicted on all charges, for which he was sentenced to death. Swan obtained new counsel and first filed for postconviction relief under Superior Court Criminal Rule 61 in 2006. He lodged several additional post-conviction motions, including applying for habeas relief. Final memoranda were filed in 2020; on February 21, 2020, the Superior Court denied Swan's motion for postconviction relief. The Delaware Supreme Court concluded, after review of the procedural history of this case, that the Superior Court did not abuse its discretion by denying Swan's motion for postconviction relief, nor did it err in denying a motion for the Superior Court judge to recuse. Thus, the Court affirmed the Superior Court's judgment.