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As his multiple statements to the contrary evidence, while he may have been joking about that exact phraseology, he was in no way joking about the underlying principle.
As for what decision he's made, he has decided ahead of time that he would not give the death penalty no matter what the circumstances presented to him were. While that doesn't affect his impartiality in the guilty/not guilty part of the process, he has made a decision about sentencing, which is another part of the process in which we expect jury neutrality and impartiality. Where juries are allowed to make determinations of death sentences, they should be just as impartial about the sentence as they are about guilt. Going into the trial knowing that you won't give it under any circumstances makes you by definition not impartial.
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