The purpose of this Act is to protect victims of sexual assault, discrimination, or harassment from retaliatory lawsuits that arise when a victim of sexual assault discloses information regarding an act of sexual assault, discrimination, or harassment. Specifically, this Act protects assault victims from defamation lawsuits by placing a higher burden of proof on the complainant, even if the complainant is a private figure. It also entitles a prevailing defendant in a defamation lawsuit to attorneys’ fees and costs, actual damages, and punitive damages.
Delaware educators identify school safety as a significant issue affecting whether they stay in the profession. This Act demonstrates the General Assembly's commitment to supporting our educators by elevating a recklessly or intentionally caused physical injury to an educator to an assault in the second degree. Under this Act, an "educator" includes an employee, contractor, or subcontractor of a public or private elementary school or secondary school. The injury must occur while on school property or at a school-sponsored event in order for this Act to apply. This Act may be cited as "The We've Got Your Back Act".
This Act clarifies that the existing law, which makes it a Class D felony when a person intentionally causes physical injury to any state employee or officer, when that employee or officer is discharging or attempting to discharge a duty of employment or office, applies to elected officials. This Act provides that it is a Class D felony when the assault of the state employee or officer is related to the person’s official position, whether or not the person assaulted is on or off duty at the time. This Act also makes technical corrections to conform existing law to the standards of the Delaware Legislative Drafting Manual.
This Act creates a privilege for confidential communications between a victim and a victim advocate. The victim can waive the privilege with a signed waiver. The privilege may also be overcome in certain circumstances, including mandated reporting of child abuse, communications relating to the intent to commit a violent crime, and in state custody and child abuse cases. This Act defines a victim advocate as an employee of a victim services agency, or formal volunteer under the supervision of an employee of a victim services agency who has completed a minimum of 20 hours of advocacy training. This substitute bill incorporates the change from HA1 to House Bill No. 213 regarding the exception for child abuse and state custody cases. It also explicitly excludes law-enforcement agencies and the Department of Justice from the definition of victim services agency. It clarifies that the victim advocate may claim the privilege but only on behalf of the victim. Finally, it adds a process and criteria for a defendant in a criminal case to overcome the privilege in certain circumstances. This is intended to mirror the exception to the therapist-client privilege articulated in Burns v. State, 968 A.2d 1012 (2009).
This Act expands the composition of the Family Justice Center Council by removing a single member that previously represented the health care community including both mental health providers and sexual assault nurse examiners, and instead adding one member representing the mental health care provider community, one member representing the sexual assault nurse examiner community, and one member representing system-based police or prosecution victim service specialists.
This Act provides protections and rights to victims of sexual assault by doing all of the following: • Codifying the core sections of Delaware's Sexual Assault Kit (SAK) testing policy, adopted in May 2022. • Enacts the recommendations of the Victims' Bill of Rights Committee (VBR Committee), established under SCR 99, (152nd General Assembly) providing rights to victims regarding information about the location, status, and preservation of biological evidence. These protections and rights for victims of sexual assault are in addition to existing requirements for DNA analysis performed by the Division of Forensic Science (DFS) laboratory under Chapter 47 of Title 29 and the Victims’ Bill of Rights under Chapter 94 of Title 11. Section 1 revises the definitions in Chapter 47 of Title 29 by transferring definitions from § 4713 of Title 29, updating existing definitions, and creating new defined terms that reflect current practices. Section 2 updates existing requirements under § 4713 of Title 29 that apply when the DFS laboratory receives, analyzes, and classifies biological samples and obtains DNA results, by doing all of the following: • Adding the names of the state and federal DNA databases. • Referencing current law-enforcement procedures, including the names of Delaware’s criminal justice case management systems. • Requiring the Department of Justice, or a law-enforcement agency authorized by the Department of Justice, to inform DFS if the investigation has determined that no crime occurred in the case connected to a biological sample that has been submitted. This enables DFS to comply with NDIS policies and procedures related to when DNA results can be included in the National DNA Index System. • Adding the VBR Committee’s recommendations preventing the destruction of biological samples from unsolved sexual assault cases based on the victim’s age at the time of the alleged offense. For adults, these biological samples may not be destroyed until 20 years after the collection of the evidence and if the victim was under 18 years of age, until the victim is 40 years old. • Adding references to the new SAK-specific provisions under § 4713A of Title 29 and § 9403B of Title 11. Section 3 adds additional requirements that apply when the DFS laboratory conducts DNA analysis of SAKs, codifying Section 5 and Section 7 of the existing SAK testing policy. Section 4 adds definitions related to biological evidence to Chapter 94 of Title 11 for the Victims’ Bill of Rights. Section 5 adds the following to the Victims’ Bill of Rights: • Requirements that apply to investigating law-enforcement agencies, codifying provisions in Section 3 and Section 4 of the existing SAK testing policy. • The VBR Committee’s recommendations regarding victims’ rights to information about the location, status, and preservation of biological evidence, such as learning the status and results of DNA testing. Victims of unsolved sexual assault cases have the right to notice before biological evidence is destroyed, to request that this evidence be preserved, and to designate another person to receive information about the status of biological evidence on their behalf. Section 6 updates how victims receive notifications from law-enforcement agencies that are required under the Victims’ Bill of Rights, to allow for implementation of the victims’ rights to information about biological evidence. All of the following changes were recommended by the VBR Committee and are identical to the language in Senate Bill No. 17 (153rd): • Allowing law-enforcement agencies to send notifications electronically. • Providing that victims are responsible for providing a law-enforcement agency with changes to the victim’s contact information. • Allowing a victim to indicate and change their preferred method of contact by law-enforcement agencies, including a preference not to be contacted, and law-enforcement agencies must use the victim’s preferred method of contact when possible. Sections 7 through 9 revise the definitions of “DNA” and “DNA profile” in Part II of Title 11 for criminal procedure so they align with the definitions in Chapter 47 of Title 29. This Act also makes technical corrections to conform existing law to the standards of the Delaware Legislative Drafting Manual.
This Act removes prohibitions in Title 11 of the Delaware Code related to owning or possessing certain types of knives that may be opened by one hand. Such cutting implements are lawfully used as tools by many working in the trades, and are also popular among outdoor, hunting, and camping enthusiasts. Currently, despite common and myriad lawful purposes, such knives are treated as deadly weapons in Delaware, and therefore subject otherwise law-abiding Delawareans engaged in law-abiding activities to criminal prosecution in the justice system. Removing the prohibitions would permit individuals to lawfully use such tools, but would still subject them to prosecution for deadly weapons-related offenses where an individual uses such a knife in the course of an attack or assault aimed at causing death or serious injury.
This Act is the second leg of a constitutional amendment to modernize the bail provisions within the Delaware Constitution and clarify the power of the General Assembly to enumerate certain felony offenses for which, or circumstances under which, pretrial release on bail may not be allowed. The first leg of this constitutional amendment was Senate Substitute No. 1 for Senate Bill No. 11 of the 152nd General Assembly, published in Chapter 283 of Volume 84 of the Laws of Delaware. On passage of this second leg by this General Assembly this amendment will become part of the Delaware Constitution. The current constitutional provision providing that only “capital offenses” are potentially not bailable first appeared in its present form in the Delaware Constitution of 1792. At that time, “capital offenses” included many more offenses than the term does today. For example, manslaughter, rape, robbery, burglary, and assaults with weapons were capital offenses, and therefore included as crimes for which a court could order pretrial detention. Thus, over time, certain crimes that the Framers included as potentially not bailable are currently bailable. Presently, a Delaware state court judge cannot order preventive detention in any non-capital case. Instead, the judge can only attempt to set the bail so high that a defendant cannot make it, which means that any defendant, no matter how dangerous and no matter the circumstance, can obtain release if the defendant can fund the bail—even if that defendant poses a certain flight risk or a known threat of harm to the public or to a specific person, such as a witness or victim. This Act is one step toward completing a pretrial release-detention continuum requiring specific evidence-based detention decisions that seek to maximize public safety while minimizing pretrial detention for those for whom detention is not required. Specifically, this Act will do all of the following: (1) Retain the express declaration of a general right to have bail set in a criminal case. (2) Provide that the crimes for which bail may be withheld are capital murder, where the evidentiary proof is positive or presumption of the accusation great, and other specifically identified felony offenses determined by and under procedures prescribed by law where the evidentiary proof is positive or presumption of the accusation great. (3) Ensure that an additional condition precedent to bail being withheld in non-capital cases is a finding by clear and convincing evidence that no condition or combination of conditions of release will reasonably assure the person’s appearance at court proceedings, reasonably assure the protection of the community, victims, witnesses, or any other person, and reasonably maintain the integrity of the judicial process, such that the defendant will not obstruct or attempt to obstruct justice. With the adoption of this Act, Delaware can progress toward the type of modern bail system that has been increasingly adopted by our sister states through amendment of their state constitutions, when needed, and the development of statutory procedures that provide, in appropriate cases, pre-trial detention without bail. And this Act does so by adopting the standards recommended by authoritative sources including the National Conference of State Legislatures, the Uniform Law Commission, the National Center for State Courts, the American Bar Association, and the numerous state legislatures and court systems that have studied pretrial detention and retained or incorporated them in their own state constitutions and laws. This Act, by itself, would not allow that a person charged with a non-capital crime could be held without bail. Rather, no person could be subject to a preventive detention hearing in a non-capital case until the General Assembly revises Chapter 21 of Title 11 of the Delaware Code to prescribe by law the specific felony offenses, circumstances, and procedures under which detention without bail may occur. The General Assembly has made the necessary revisions to Chapter 21 of Title 11 through the adoption of Senate Bill No. 12 of the 152nd General Assembly, published as Chapter 473 of Volume 84 of the Laws of Delaware, which was enacted on September 30, 2024, and will take effect 6 months after the enactment of this Act. This Act requires a greater than majority vote for passage because § 1 of Article XVI of the Delaware Constitution requires the affirmative vote of two-thirds of the members elected to each house of the General Assembly when the General Assembly amends the Delaware Constitution.
