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 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 Act makes changes to the requirements for placement on the sex offender registry of individuals who are adjudicated delinquent of certain offenses. First, it reduces the number of offenses for which placement on the sex offender registry is mandatory and the Family Court has no discretion to relieve a person adjudicated delinquent from the requirement or to reduce the tier assigned. Mandatory registration is still required for all degrees of rape (first through fourth) and conspiracy or attempt to commit any degree of rape. This Act will also allow an individual placed on the registry to petition the Family Court to be relieved from the registration or placed on a lower tier, either at the conclusion of any required treatment or after the passage of 2 years for most offenses, or after the passage of 5 years for those offenses that still require mandatory registration. The ability to petition for a registry review hearing after the mandated review period will apply to anyone placed on the registry because of a juvenile delinquency adjudication, regardless of the date of that adjudication.
The Voluntary Assessment Center was created by legislative action in 1976 (60 Del. Laws Section 509) to allow recipients of minor traffic violations to pay the fine and costs associated with the violation without the need to appear in the Justice of the Peace Court. Section 709 (i) advises that "Payment of the prescribed fine, costs, and penalty assessment is an admission of guilt, a waiver of the right to a hearing, and a complete satisfaction of the violation." Upon payment, the Court can consider the matter closed and advise the Division of Motor Vehicles of the violation for the Division's recordance purposes. Formerly, those who were unable to pay the fine in one payment were required instead to submit to a court date (which engendered additional court costs) if only to request a payment plan - a practice that seemed patently unfair. Accordingly, in 2012, the Court established a process where the Voluntary Assessment Center could accept payment of fines incrementally. Although more equitable, this new process caused unforeseen consequences. Because the current definition of payment is the total amount due, if a person makes a partial payment but does not completely pay the balance of the fine, the Court cannot consider the matter closed. The Division is not made aware of the violation and the case remains in administrative limbo. Currently, no capiases or warrants are issued for unpaid Voluntary Assessments. Instead, the Division places a flag on an individual's license and registration. It is usually only years later when an individual goes to renew their license that they respond to the Court to complete payment. Redefining payment in the definition of this section will further streamline the Court's administrative process of maintaining the record and will report to the Division the associated data in a timely manner.
This bill updates and clarifies certain provisions that have been confusing or otherwise problematic in the Investor Protection Unit’s enforcement efforts, or have otherwise become out-of-synch with federal securities law. The term “Commissioner” is a holdover from when the Investor Protection Unit was called the Securities Unit, and is no longer the correct term. It is replaced with “Director” to be consistent throughout the Act. In order to ensure consistency throughout the Act and create certainty as the applicability of rules issued pursuant to the Act, the phrase “or any rule or order hereunder” has been added after “this chapter” where it was missing. This clarifies that the Rules and orders are enforceable regardless of which statutory provision is implicated by an administrative action. This bill provides a definition of “willful” that tracks the federal definition as used in federal law and in the 1956 Uniform Securities Act, on which the Delaware Securities Act was originally patterned. The Uniform Securities Act of 1956, as amended, explains in the official code comment that “As the federal courts and the SEC have construed the term “willfully” in § 15(b) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, 15 U.S.C. § 78o(b): all that is required is proof that the person acted intentionally in the sense that he was aware of what he was doing. Proof of evil motive or intent to violate the law, or knowledge that the law was being violated, is not required. The principal function of the word “willfully” is thus to serve as a legislative hint of self-restraint to the Administrator.” Similarly, the definition of “security” is revised to clarify that an analysis of whether an instrument is a security should be a substance over form analysis, following the approach under federal law. Section 73-209, concerning false filings, was moved to new section 73-104 to clarify its applicability to the entire Delaware Securities Act. The heading of Section 73-201 was changed from “Fraud” to “Employment of manipulative and deceptive devices” to harmonize with that of a similar provision from the Securities Act of 1934. Section 73-207(d) was amended to clarify its applicability to securities exemptions. Section 73- 208(g) was removed as it is no longer effective. Various subsections of Section 73-302 were amended to establish clarity as to the timeline for registrations and to prevent the inadvertent approval of a registration under review by the Investor Protection Unit. Section 73-304(a)(6) is being revised to add additional securities regulators to the list of entities whose orders can be considered when determining whether to take action concerning a registrant or applicant’s registration status. Section 73-305(c)(1), which prohibits investment adviser fees based on a percentage of capital gains, is amended to allow for such fees if approved by a rule or order of the Director. This brings Delaware into harmony with federal practice, since the SEC has started allowing such a fee structure under certain circumstances, subject to periodic review of the policy. Section 73-601 is amended to clarify that there is no aggregation of violations when determining the imposition of fines; that a party seeking a hearing on a summary order must provide an answer in writing; and adds freezing accounts to the list of actions the Unit may take, which may be helpful in dealing with the increase in cryptocurrency fraud. This Act also makes technical corrections to conform existing law to the standards of the Delaware Legislative Drafting Manual.
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 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.
In 2016, the General Assembly passed HB 404, the Concussion Protection in Youth Athletic Activities Act (CPYAAA). This Act clarifies the requirements of CPYAAA and enables the Division of Public Health, in consultation with the State Council for Persons with Disabilities, to promulgate regulations to broadly implement the Act. This Amendment adds the requirement for non-scholastic athletic activity organizations to develop policies and procedures for advising athletes, coaches, officials, parents, and guardians of the signs and symptoms of concussion and explaining the risk of continuing to practice or compete in athletic events or activities after sustaining a concussion, as well as providing information about returning to academic and athletic events or activities after sustaining a concussion.
According to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, an estimated 800,000 children are reported missing each year. This Act is a substitute for Senate Bill No. 46. Like Senate Bill No. 46, this Act revises this State's missing children laws to improve search efforts, increase collaboration between law enforcement agencies, and increase public information about missing children. This Act differs from Senate Bill No. 46 in that it does all of the following: (1) Removes language relating to “unemancipated minors” and instead uses the term “child”, as defined in § 302 of Title 1 of the Delaware Code, uniformly throughout Subchapter II of Chapter 85 of Title 11 of the Delaware Code. Delaware does not have emancipation of minors and anyone under the age of 18 is considered a child under our laws. (2) Includes a legal custodian as a person who can sign a dental authorization form to permit release of dental records to law-enforcement agencies. This allows the Department of Services for Children, Youth and their Families to authorize the release of dental records for any child in its legal custody. (3) Includes a legal custodian as a point of contact for law-enforcement agencies when fulfilling their duties regarding unidentified deceased persons. This allows the Department of Services for Children, Youth and their Families to be a point of contact and receive information for any child in its legal custody. (4) Removes the limitation on who may report a missing child and instead allows a child to be reported missing by any person. This enables schools, daycares, group homes, relatives, or persons caring for a child without legal authority to report a child missing from their care. This Act also makes technical corrections to conform existing law to the standards of the Delaware Legislative Drafting Manual.
