Thomas Capano, left, and Anne Marie Fahey, his former mistress

WILMINGTON, Delaware (CNN) -- A jury in Delaware has recommended the death penalty for a prominent lawyer found guilty of murdering his lover whose body has never been found.

Eleven days after convicting Thomas Capano of first-degree murder in the death of Anne Marie Fahey, the panel of six men and six women deliberated three hours Thursday before advising Superior Court Judge William Swain Lee to impose a penalty of death for the crime.

The judge's decision is expected in about six weeks.

The jury voted 11-1 that the murder was premeditated and the result of substantial planning and 10-2 that the preponderance of aggravating over mitigating circumstances merited capital punishment.

Earlier Thursday, Capano, 49, told jurors that he would gladly trade places with Fahey.

He addressed her brother Brian's concern about his sister's last minutes saying "Did Anne Marie die in great fear or trembling? She never knew what happened to her. Anne Marie is somebody I love very much and, once upon a time, was in love with," he said in a 45- minute statement.

After the death edict was recommended by the jury in the high-profile case, Capano was led off by guards but managed to mouth the words "I'll be all right" to his mother who was present in the court.

Hours earlier, his 75-year-old mother, Marguerite, pleaded with jurors from her wheelchair: "Please don't take my son. Please spare my son for me and for his family and for his daughters."

The jury also had heard pleas for leniency from Capano's sister, daughters, ex-wife, three Roman Catholic priests, a former mayor of Wilmington, and the two brothers whose testimony as state witnesses helped convict him.

Capano was once a state prosecutor and a high-profile political adviser to mayors and governors.

Deborah MacIntyre

His sentencing was another dramatic turn in a case that has been avidly followed in Delaware since Fahey's disappearance.

State residents closely followed the trial, which exposed sensational details about some of the most influential people in this usually staid financial center, with its tightly interlocking circles of law, politics and business.

The same jurors, in a unanimous vote, found Capano guilty on January 17 of murdering Fahey, 30, in his Wilmington home after she tried to break off their secret three-year romance on June 27, 1996, the last day she was seen alive.

Fahey was the scheduling secretary of Delaware Gov. Thomas Carper.

Capano admitted under oath that he dumped his lover's body into the Atlantic Ocean near Stone Harbor, New Jersey. But he claimed she had been shot accidentally when another girlfriend tried to commit suicide after finding the couple together.

No body or murder weapon was found. And for nearly 2 1/2 years, Capano claimed to know nothing of Fahey's whereabouts.

The other woman, 48-year-old Deborah MacIntyre, had a 17- year affair with Capano but denied visiting his home on the night Fahey died.

Capano's attorneys called the jury vote "crushing." But one of them, Eugene Maurer, said "We're not going to stop fighting, ever. Tom's optimistic and he wants to get rolling on his appeal."

But another, Joseph Oteri was clearly upset. "We're crushed," he said. "What can we say? We thought we'd saved his life. We didn't."

Fahey's sister, Kathleen Hosey, told reporters her reaction to Capano's statement today was that "I just wanted him to stop talking. Tom Capano made my sister stop talking two and a half years ago." Hosey and her four brothers orchestrated a campaign to keep their sister's case in the public eye after she disappeared.

The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report.