Benjamin Rauf, Defendant-Appellant v. State of Delaware, Plaintiff-Appellee — Holland, J., Concurring

Summary

Justice Holland, concurring in the majority per curiam opinion, concluded that Delaware's capital-sentencing statute violates the Sixth Amendment insofar as it permits a judge independently to find aggravating circumstances necessary to impose death and to make the ultimate aggravation-versus-mitigation determination. He reasoned that every fact necessary to increase the defendant's maximum punishment from life imprisonment to death must be found by a jury unanimously and beyond a reasonable doubt, and that the statutory defects cannot be severed or cured by jury instructions. Justice Vaughn, dissenting, would have upheld the statute except for judicial findings of aggravating circumstances not found by the jury, while Justice Strine, concurring, agreed that the jury must make the ultimate life-or-death determination.