This Senate Concurrent Resolution honors and recognizes the leadership, achievements, and sacrifices of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and urges all citizens of the First State to participate fittingly in the observance of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Day on January 15, 2024.
This Concurrent Resolution recognizes January 9, 2024, as "Law Enforcement Appreciation Day" in the State of Delaware.
This Act requires that a train or light engine used to move freight by railroad have a crew of at least 2 individuals. Violation of this statute subjects the railroad to a $500 fine for a first offense, and a $1,000 fine for a second or subsequent offense within 3 years of the first offense.
This Resolution establishes the Delaware Aquaculture Task Force.
This concurrent resolution expresses the State of Delaware General Assembly’s concern for the loss of life in the Israel-Hamas war and calls on the legislature and the citizens of Delaware to recognize our common humanity and the shared strength of our diversity.
This is the first leg of a constitutional amendment creating a "Crossover Day" deadline for each House of the General Assembly to send legislation over to the other House. The annual budget appropriation act, grants-in-aid act, bond and capital improvements act, and resolutions are excluded from this deadline. Currently 26 states, including Maryland, have crossover day deadlines for passing legislation between their two legislative chambers.
This bill precludes the so-called LGBTQ+ "panic" defense that seeks to partially or completely excuse or justify a defendant from full accountability for the commission of a crime on the grounds that the actual or perceived sexual orientation, sex, gender, gender identity, or sex assigned at birth of the victim is sufficient to explain, excuse, or justify the defendant's conduct, or contributes to or causes the defendant's mental state, or that the defendant’s reaction thereto constitutes a mental illness, mental defect, or mental disorder sufficient to excuse or justify the defendant's conduct (including under circumstances in which the victim made a nonviolent romantic or sexual advance toward the defendant or in which the defendant and the victim dated or had a romantic or sexual relationship). Sections 1 and 3 of this bill move the definitions for gender identity and sexual orientation currently in the hate crimes statute to the general definitions section of the Criminal Code to maintain standard definitions of these terms throughout the Criminal Code. Section 2 of this bill provides that in any prosecution or sentencing for an offense: (i) a defendant is not justified in using force against another based on the discovery of, knowledge or belief about, or the potential or actual disclosure of the victim’s actual or perceived sexual orientation, sex, gender, gender identity, or sex assigned at birth; (ii) for the purposes of determining whether there is a reasonable explanation or excuse for the existence of extreme emotional disturbance or other asserted mitigating factor or circumstance, such explanation or excuse is not reasonable if it is based on the discovery of, knowledge or belief about, or the potential or actual disclosure of the victim’s actual or perceived sexual orientation, sex, gender, gender identity, or sex assigned at birth; and (iii) a defendant does not suffer from a mental illness, mental defect, mental disorder, serious mental disorder, psychiatric disorder, or other impairment affecting or impacting the defendant’s mental state relating to any questions of intent, knowledge, capacity to appreciate the wrongfulness of the defendant's conduct, disturbance of the defendant's thinking, feeling or behavior, culpability, willpower to choose whether to do or refrain from doing an act, or ability to distinguish right from wrong, based on the discovery of, knowledge or belief about, or the potential or actual disclosure of the victim’s actual or perceived sexual orientation, sex, gender, gender identity, or sex assigned at birth. This bill does not preclude a defendant from availing themself of any defense permitted by the Delaware Criminal Code or other applicable Delaware law on bases other than those specifically precluded by this bill. This House Substitute No. 2 differs from the original in that it corrects the omission of the phrase “or sentencing” in § 472(a), (b), and (c).
This Act repeals the sunset of the Focus on Alternative Skills Training Program, which provides tuition for an eligible individual to attend an approved nondegree credit certificate program that provides industry-accepted skill training and certification.
This Act provides a definition for 911 Dispatchers. While referenced in other sections of the Code, including being identified as a first responder in § 4319 of Title 11 for purposes of confidentiality of communications by first responders for critical incident stress management services, Dispatchers have not otherwise been defined.
This Act provides that any adult day care facility required to be licensed under Chapter 1 of Title 16 is subject to the existing reporting obligations for facilities under Subchapter III of Chapter 11 of Title 16 of the Delaware Code.
