Criminal Justice

This Act expands the criminal offense of impersonating a police officer, firefighter, emergency medical technician, paramedic, or fire officer to also prohibit impersonation of a federal officer. This Act also makes technical corrections to conform to the Legislative Drafting Manual and creates a definition of “law-enforcement official,” which includes all of the state officers already explicitly referenced in the statute, as well as federal officers.

This Act is the first leg of a constitutional amendment to prohibit the imposition of the death penalty. Amending the Delaware Constitution requires not only the passing of the changes in this Act, but also passage of the same changes after the next general election by the next General Assembly. 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 to amend the Delaware Constitution. This Substitute for House Bill No. 35 makes technical corrections and omits the changes to § 12 of Article I to avoid confusion as there is a different currently pending amendment to that section.