Jeffrey Phillips, Defendant Below, Appellant v. State of Delaware, Plaintiff Below, Appellee

Summary

The Supreme Court of Delaware affirmed the convictions arising from a joint trial involving gang-related murders, conspiracy, firearm, and related offenses. It upheld the denials of severance, the admission of co-conspirator statements and a deceased witness's identification, the denial of a mistrial, the jury-note response, and the rejection of the speedy-trial claim, concluding that none of those rulings constituted reversible error. The court vacated the death sentence because Delaware's death-penalty procedure violated the Sixth Amendment and remanded for resentencing to life imprisonment without probation, parole, or other reduction. The concurrence agreed with the result on the mistrial issue but would have found the witness-protection testimony highly prejudicial and affirmed solely because the evidence was overwhelming.