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What started as death penalty case ends in 15-year sentence
HOCKESSIN, Del. – A man who pleaded guilty in a case that prompted Delaware’s Supreme Court to overturn a death penalty law in the state has been sentenced to 15 years in prison.
The News Journal reports 29-year-old Benjamin Rauf was sentenced Thursday in the 2015 drug-related killing of his former Temple University law school classmate, Shazim Uppal. Rauf, of Westerlo, New York, had pleaded guilty to manslaughter and a weapons charge.
His public defender, Ross Flockerzie, says Rauf accepted responsibility and wanted to spare Uppal’s family from going through a trial.
Prosecutors had planned to seek the death penalty against Rauf, but a judge sought the state Supreme Court’s opinion after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled against Florida’s similar law, which permitted capital punishment even when juries are less-than-unanimous in recommending death.
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Information from: The News Journal of Wilmington, Del., http://www.delawareonline.com
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