WILMINGTON, Del. (AP) - A judge is holding an evidence suppression hearing for a murder suspect whose case led to Delaware's death penalty being overturned by the state Supreme Court.
Wednesday's hearing comes in the prosecution of Benjamin Rauf, who is charged in the 2015 drug-related killing of 27-year-old Shazim Uppal of Hockessin, a fellow Temple University law school graduate.
Prosecutors had planned to seek the death penalty against Rauf, but after a U.S. Supreme Court ruling regarding Florida's death penalty statute, the judge sought a state Supreme Court opinion on Delaware's law, which is similar to Florida's.
A majority of the justices concluded that Delaware's law was unconstitutional because it allows judges too much discretion and doesn't require that a jury find unanimously and beyond a reasonable doubt that a defendant deserves execution.
