Delaware Man Dies in Prison 47 Years After Furlough Kidnapping and Rape Conviction

Arthur Lewis Kee, who spent nearly half a century behind bars after kidnapping and raping a woman while out on a prison furlough, has died in state custody.

Kee was 32 in July 1978 when he left the Plummer House work-release center in Wilmington on an authorized weekend furlough. During that weekend, he kidnapped and raped a 20-year-old Virginia woman. The woman later testified that Kee held her against her will and threatened to kill her if she told anyone about the attack.

A Sussex County Superior Court jury convicted Kee of rape and kidnapping. In April 1979, Judge Claude L. Tease sentenced him to two life sentences.

Kee’s case became part of a larger public debate over Delaware’s prison furlough program, with reports at the time that some inmates were using weekend passes to commit crimes. A Sussex County newspaper editorial that summer questioned the state’s prison policies and called for a new prison. Just weeks before Kee’s crimes, Governor Pierre S. du Pont had signed a law barring prisoners serving time for Class A felonies from furlough programs and limiting their work-release eligibility until they were within six months of release.

Kee died in the infirmary at James T. Vaughn Correctional Center, where he had been receiving hospice care. The report did not give a date or cause of death.

Source: First State Update — https://firststateupdate.com/2026/11/inmate-who-kidnapped-and-raped-woman-while-on-prison-furlough-dies-after-47-years-behind-bars/