WILMINGTON -- A criminal case making its way to the Delaware Supreme Court could help define personal privacy and set limits on how far police can go when using electronic surveillance in Delaware and perhaps across the United States. The American Civil Liberties Union this week filed a brief in Delaware v. Michael D. Holden, urging the state justices to uphold a lower court ruling that essentially bars police from using Global Positioning Systems (GPS) to track people without a court-approved warrant. [continues 958 words]
Like its bigger neighbors, Philadelphia and Baltimore, Wilmington is dealing with runaway violent crime -- enduring a record 26 homicides in 2008. But in Baltimore and Philadelphia, homicide rates have fallen. The difference appears to be that Delaware's big-city neighbors have started programs that train -- even prod -- convicted felons to find work and adjust to life on the streets after they get out of prison. No such state-sponsored programs exist in Delaware, where inmates are released with little more than the clothes on their backs. [continues 2303 words]
WILMINGTON -- Joseph Bentley, the first person in Delaware ever charged and convicted for selling tainted drugs that led to a death, was sentenced to 20 years in prison today. In November, Bentley admitted he sold fentanyl-laced heroin to Seth Boyd, 30, of Dover, who died on April 28, 2006, after snorting the drug. Fentanyl is a painkiller that is 80 times more potent than morphine. Bentley, dressed in a white shirt and khaki pants, chose not to address the court today and showed no emotion after District Judge Gregory M. Sleet handed down the sentence, the minimum mandatory under the law. [continues 243 words]
