Rep. Danny Short

This Senate Concurrent Resolution urges Delaware's U.S. Congressional Delegation to support federal legislation to establish a national database of beneficial ownership of corporations and limited liability companies to assist federal and state law enforcement in combating criminal activity.

This Concurrent Resolution celebrates the 50th anniversary of the Office of the Controller General.

Establishing a suspect's identity is critical to their processing by law enforcement. DNA analysis provides unparalleled accuracy in establishing identity. The United States Supreme Court held that "DNA identification of arrestees is a reasonable search that can be considered part of a routine booking procedure". Maryland v. King, 569 U.S. 435, 465 (2013). The establishment of an individual's DNA may identify the perpetrator of "some heinous crime" and may free "a person wrongfully imprisoned for the same offense". Id. at 456. The collection of a DNA sample by buccal swab (cheek swab) of a person is a reasonable and legitimate police booking procedure that should be available for identifying those arrested for serious crimes in Delaware. This Act creates a constitutionally sound procedure for collecting and analyzing arrestee DNA. First, the Act directs that biological samples only be obtained from those accused of committing designated serious felony offenses. Second, biological samples may only be taken from arrestees by the least intrusive method - a buccal swab. Third, samples may only be submitted for identification analysis after a determination of probable cause by a judge at a preliminary hearing or a grand jury by indictment. Finally, any DNA sample or analysis of a DNA sample shall be destroyed or expunged from a DNA database if probable cause is not determined or if all charges associated with the arrest of the individual are dismissed or the individual is found to be not guilty. This Act shall become effective upon the receipt of a federal grant to the State pursuant to the Katie Sepich Enhanced DNA Collection Act of 2012.

This Act authorizes the Division of Motor Vehicles (“Division”) to issue special registration plates in support of Delaware's 3 counties and 57 municipalities without having to enact a special law for each request. If a municipality has less than 1,000 residents the Division may approve the issuance of a municipality’s special registration plate based on less than 50 applications. This Act assesses a 1-time, $20 fee, $10 of which must be deposited by the Division into a special account to be directed to each county or municipality to support the county’s or municipality's operations.

This bill removes panic button hardware or software as eligible expenses from the fund because the State has established the RAVE Mobile Security System through the Department of Safety and Homeland Security

The Department of Transportation is already authorized to issue multi-trip permits for pole and piling semitrailers and double-bottom vehicles, also known as “twin trailers,” on a monthly basis. This Act authorizes the Department to also issue the permits on an annual basis. The existing law provides that a monthly permit must be issued for a specified period; an annual permit, in contrast, is not limited to a specified period.

This Senate Joint Resolution requires the Public Service Commission to conduct a comprehensive review of the Qualified Fuel Cell Provider tariff and Qualified Fuel Cell Provider facilities to identify and evaluate any options that may be available to reduce the burden of this tariff on Delmarva Power ratepayers. This Senate Joint Resolution also requires that a report containing the results of this review be completed and made public within 1 year.

This act will be known as the Extreme Crimes Protection Act. This Act revises Delaware's death penalty statute to ensure its compliance with the United States Constitution, as interpreted by the United State Supreme Court in Hurst v. Florida, and by the Delaware Supreme Court in Rauf v. State. In accord with those cases, this Act will require that before a death sentence can be imposed, a jury (unless the Defendant waives their right to one) must first determine unanimously and beyond a reasonable doubt: that at least 1 statutory aggravating circumstance exists; which (if any) statutory and non-statutory aggravating circumstances alleged by the State exist; and whether all of the aggravating circumstances found to exist outweigh all of the mitigating circumstances found to exist. This Act also revises Delaware's death penalty statute to comply with the United State Supreme Court's holding in Hall v. Florida, interpreting standards set forth in Atkins v. Virginia. This Act adopts the term "intellectual disability" used by the United State Supreme Court. This Act recognizes developing trends in death penalty jurisprudence and the American Bar Association's Resolution 122A (2006), of August 8, 2006, by prohibiting the imposition of the death penalty upon a person who has been found "guilty, but mentally ill", as defined by Title 11 § 401. This Act also narrows the scope of the most commonly used statutory aggravating circumstances - those applicable in cases involving defendants with previous convictions for violent felonies and murders committed during the commission of other enumerated felonies. Several other statutory aggravating circumstances have been combined to eliminate duplication, eliminated entirely, or otherwise clarified.

This concurrent resolution recognizes the month of May 2019 as "Healthy Vision Month" in the State of Delaware.

This Act allows brew-pubs to brew, bottle, and sell beer at other brew-pubs by removing the current restriction limiting such actions to no more than 3 licensed brew-pubs.