Delaware Superior Court Judge Carpenter stepping down Dec. 31
By WILMINGTON — After nearly 30 years as a Delaware Superior Court judge, William C. Carpenter Jr. will be stepping down from the bench Dec. 31, according to a Wednesday announcement.
Judge Carpenter, 71, is the most senior judicial officer in the Superior Court, the Delaware Administrative Office of the Courts said.
“While it is always difficult to walk away from a job that you have found so rewarding, my time has come,” he wrote in an October letter to Gov. John Carney, stating his intention to retire after more than 47 years as a judge and federal prosecutor.
“I want to thank you for the confidence you have shown in me and for allowing me the privilege of serving as a jurist in what I believe is the best judiciary in the nation,” he added.
During his tenure, Judge Carpenter, a Milton native, presided over a number of significant criminal and civil cases, including the recent prosecution of State Auditor Kathy McGuiness for official misconduct; the trials against 19 individuals accused in the 2017 riot at the James T. Vaughn Correctional Center that resulted in the death of Sgt. Steven Floyd; and the 2011 prosecution of pediatrician Earl Bradley for the rape and sexual abuse of his young patients.
The judge also oversaw a number of death penalty cases, like the prosecution of Brian Steckel, who was executed in 2005 and was the last person put to death by the state before its capital punishment law was declared unconstitutional by a 2016 U.S. Supreme Court ruling.
Judge Carpenter also served six years in the Superior Court’s Complex Commercial Litigation Division, handling cases involving significant corporate disputes.
“Judge Carpenter has devoted decades of his life to the administration of justice,” said Superior Court President Judge Jan R. Jurden. “He has served this court, the judiciary and our state with the utmost distinction, and his legacy will be one of selfless service, leadership, adherence to the rule of law, integrity, collegiality and hard work. I am so grateful to have had the privilege of working with him for the last 20 years.
“He is an esteemed colleague who will be sorely missed.”
Judge Carpenter has served under four chief justices and was first nominated to Superior Court in 1993 by then-Gov. Tom Carper. He was reappointed in 2005 by then-Gov. Ruth Ann Minner and again in 2017 by Gov. Carney.
Prior to joining the Superior Court, he was the U.S. attorney for Delaware from 1985-93 — serving under presidents Ronald Reagan, George H.W. Bush and Bill Clinton. Before that, he was an assistant U.S. attorney for eight years.
In 2020, Judge Carpenter was tasked with leading the judiciary’s efforts to address the COVID-19 pandemic and produced a detailed, phased plan to put health and safety measures in place to reopen the courts and eventually transition back to normal operations.
In June 2021, he was awarded the Delaware State Bar Association’s highest honor — the First State Distinguished Service Award — in recognition of the respect he has brought to the legal profession and the bar through his “good citizenship in civic and humanitarian service” and his many years advancing “the ideals of citizen participation and community accomplishment.
