House Bill 115 (151st General Assembly) – Raises the minimum age of prosecution for juveniles to 12. United States Supreme Court case law and scientific research has changed how we think about juvenile delinquency. We know now that an adolescent’s brain is not fully developed until the mid-twenties which makes juveniles especially prone to poor decision-making. In the landmark case of Miller v. Alabama, in which the United States Supreme Court prohibited mandatory life sentences without parole for juveniles on the rationale that children are inherently different than adults, the Court relied not only scientific research but on common sense and what any parent knows: kids will be kids.
Senate Bill 111 and 112 (151st General Assembly) – Automates Delaware’s expungement process for thousands of adults and juveniles and expands the eligibility for mandatory expungements.
House Bill 26 (151st General Assembly) – This bill ends the practice of youth incarceration in adult prisons and establishes that from a date certain, no more juveniles will be transferred to the custody of the Department of Correction upon their adjudication.
House Bill 162 (151st General Assembly) – This Act creates a fund to allow the Department of Services for Children, Youth, and their Families to award competitive grants for the targeted provision of services that have been proven effective in helping juveniles avoid contact with the criminal justice system. This Act also allocates $500,000 for FY 2022 to the Fund for provision of cognitive behavioral therapy services and vocational training services.
House Joint Resolution 4 (151st General Assembly) – Requiring the publishing of integrity reports with complaints made against police officers and a list of decertified police officers.
House Bill 67 (151st General Assembly) – This bill closes a gun loophole in existing Delaware law by making it a crime for a person who is not otherwise legally eligible to own, possess, or purchase a firearm or ammunition to attempt to obtain same through fraud, deceit, or deception.
House Bill 55 (151st General Assembly) – Implements Gun Shop Project suicide prevention initiative. In 2009, New Hampshire was the first state to develop a statewide Gun Shop Project, reaching out to gun shops regarding the role they can play in suicide prevention. In the years since, at least 21 other states have implemented similar campaigns. The Gun Shop Project’s primary purpose is to develop, create, and provide suicide prevention education materials and training, to be made available for dealers and consumers of licensed deadly weapons in Delaware. The Delaware Suicide Prevention Coalition will oversee the Gun Shop Project and include the Project’s annual report in the Coalition’s annual report.
House Bill 124 (151st General Assembly) – Prohibits firearm purchase or possession by a person currently subject to domestic violence charges or who is the subject of a Protection from Abuse Order of the Family Court.
House Bill 125 (151st General Assembly) – This bill criminalizes the possession or manufacturing of “ghost guns.” Ghost guns are generally described as homemade weapons that do not have serial numbers or other identifying markings that enable them to be tracked to their maker, seller, or original owner. Individuals – sometimes people prohibited from possessing firearms – can sidestep background check laws and purchase or manufacture components and assemble their own firearms.
Justice for All Agenda (151st General Assembly):
- House Bill 195 – Requiring law enforcement officers to wear and use body cameras to record interactions with the public.
- House Bill 243 – Ending the practice of publicly disseminating and publishing juvenile mugshots for most offenses.
- House Bill 215 – Requiring law enforcement to electronically record custodial interrogations when they relate to a crime allegedly committed by an adult or a delinquent act allegedly committed by a child.
- Senate Bill 147 – Creating an objective use-of-force standard for Delaware police officers by stipulating that the use of both lethal and non-lethal force is legally justifiable only if that belief is determined to be reasonable.
- Senate Bill 148 – Expanding the power of the Department of Justice’s Division of Civil Rights and Public Trust to review police use-of-force incidents that result in serious physical injury in addition to the office’s existing mandate to review all deadly-force incidents.
House Bill 7, House Bill 124 and Senate Bill 43 (150th General Assembly) – These bills remove roadblocks to employment for individuals who have paid their debt to society. Collectively, the bills will help job-seekers obtain licenses in several trade fields as plumbers, electricians and massage therapists. By making these changes, people who have been formerly incarcerated have a chance to succeed, have hope, and contribute.
House Bill 5 (150th General Assembly) – This important component of our criminal justice reform agenda returns sentencing discretion to judges, removing harmful statutes requiring the stacking of prison sentences. In all but the most egregious cases, judges will have discretion to sentence concurrently, rather than consecutively (as it currently stands). This will not only reduce our prison population, but also make our legal system more fair and just.
House Bill 300 (149th General Assembly) – House Bill 300 would make it a crime to buy, sell, transfer or possess a bump-fire stock, firearm attachments capable of modifying semiautomatic weapons into firing rapidly, similar to the speed of illegal automatic weapons. They were used in the Las Vegas mass shooting, helping the shooter fire enough bullets in a span of 10 minutes to kill 59 people and injure 851. Residents and families have every right to protect their lives and property, but the only reason to own a device like this is to fire hundreds of rounds per minute. The law will be enacted 120 days after being signed, and includes a compensation program and process for those to turn in their bump stocks.
HS 1 for House Bill 302 (149th General Assembly) – The Beau Biden Gun Violence Prevention Act is a major step forward in gun safety reform, limiting access to firearms for those considered a danger to themselves or others. Named in honor of former Attorney General Beau Biden’s son, the bill will prevent those who have been determined to pose a danger to themselves or others from obtaining or possessing a firearm. The new law also instructs health professionals to report to law enforcement anyone they believe presents a danger to themselves or others. A consensus-drive bill that brought together many stakeholders, it balances due process and public safety in the ultimate effort to prevent senseless gun violence by keeping guns out of the hands of those who present a danger.
It adds the following individuals to the list of persons prohibited from owning a firearm:
- Any person who has been committed to a hospital for treatment of a mental condition.
- Perpetrators of violent crimes who have been found:
- Not guilty by reason of insanity;
- Guilty but mentally ill;
- Mentally incompetent to stand trial.
HS 1 for House Bill 222 (149th General Assembly) – Modeled after the Beau Biden Gun Violence Prevention Act, HS 1 for HB 222 is a “red flag” bill, which closes a gap in Delaware law that makes it difficult for families and law enforcement to prevent at-risk individuals from harming themselves or others by removing firearms from potentially life-threatening situations.
Senate Bill 197 (149th General Assembly) – This Act provides mandatory expungement eligibility to individuals who were convicted of the possession, use or consumption of marijuana prior to Delaware’s decriminalization of these offenses.
Senate Bill 54 (149th General Assembly) – The continued existence and dissemination of a juvenile criminal record hampers an individual’s ability to become a successful and productive member of society. These criminal histories are a hindrance to employment, education, housing and credit. This act modifies Delaware’s discretionary expungement provisions to allow more children, and adults with only juvenile records, the ability to petition the Court for an expungement.
House Bill 325 (148th General Assembly) – Closes a loophole regarding gun background check laws that allow for guns to be given to potential purchasers if the background check is delayed for 3 days or more.
House Substitute 1 for House Bill 1 (148th General Assembly) – Ensures that victims of sexual violence on college campuses have full knowledge of the options available to them, including criminal justice resources available in addition to the internal administrative processes led by their schools.
House Bill 2 (148th General Assembly) – Requires new police officers to receive victim-centered, trauma-informed and offender-focused sexual assault training. Current officers will receive the training in a window of time after enactment of the bill, and all officers will be required to retrain periodically. Prosecutors also will receive training. This bill aims to improve interactions between victims of sexual violence and law enforcement.
House Bill 35 (147th General Assembly) – Requires that a criminal history background check be performed in connection with the sale or transfer of all firearms, with a few exceptions. Background checks would be performed by licensed firearms dealers, who are already required to conduct a background check whenever they sell a firearm or when requested by private parties. Dealers would be required to maintain records of such background checks in accordance with state and federal law.
House Bill 48 (146th General Assembly) – Requires Delaware to submit information about persons prohibited from possessing firearms to the National Instant Criminal Background Check System (NICS) database.
House Substitute 1 for House Bill 348 (145th General Assembly) – Creates a new criminal offense, Crime Against a Vulnerable Adult, which imposes enhanced penalties in more than 50 criminal offenses if the victim is a vulnerable adult.
House Bill 165 (145th General Assembly) – Gives the public online access to the Adult Abuse Registry. Delawareans seeking to hire someone to help care for their elderly loved one could easily go online and check the job applicant’s name against the registry.