Delaware House Bill 322 (Prior Session Legislation)

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Completed Legislative Action
Spectrum: Slight Partisan Bill (Democrat 12-7)
Status: Passed on May 18 2010 - 100% progression
Action: 2010-05-18 - Signed by Governor
Text: Latest bill text (Draft #1) [HTML]

This Act corrects a loop-hole in Delaware’s felony resisting arrest statute identified by the Delaware Supreme Court’s recent opinion in Watson v. State, No. 335, 2009 (January 6, 2010). In Watson, two probation and parole officers were injured by a defendant while trying to make an arrest for a probation violation. On appeal, the Delaware Supreme Court reversed Watson’s convictions for the felony offense of resisting arrest by force or violence under 1257(a) because the statute, by its express terms, only applies to arrests by police officers. Instead, the Delaware Supreme Court directed that convictions for the misdemeanor crime of resisting arrest under 1257(b), which applies to arrests by all peace officers, be entered against Watson. The General Assembly believes that the use of force or violence against any peace officer attempting to make an arrest is an extremely serious offense and is, therefore, enacting this legislation to close the loop-hole identified by our Supreme Court.

An Act To Amend Title 11 Of The Delaware Code Relating To Specific Offenses.

Rep. John Atkins [D]	Rep. Edward Bennett [D]	Rep. Ruth Briggs King [R]	Rep. Ruth Briggs King [R]
Rep. William Carson [D]	Sen. Bruce Ennis [D]	Rep. Deborah Hudson [R]	Rep. Earl Jaques [D]
Rep. James Johnson [D]	Sen. Michael Katz [D]	Rep. Clifford Lee [R]	Rep. Joseph Miro [R]
Rep. John Mitchell [D]	Rep. Michael Ramone [R]	Rep. Peter Schwartzkopf [D]	Rep. Darryl Scott [D]
Rep. Bryon Short [D]	Rep. Robert Walls [D]	Sen. David Wilson [R]

2010-05-12 - Senate - Senate Third Reading (Y: 21 N: 0 NV: 0 Abs: 0) [PASS]
2010-03-18 - House - House Third Reading (Y: 40 N: 0 NV: 0 Abs: 1) [PASS]

Date	Chamber	Action
2010-05-18		Signed by Governor
2010-05-12		Passed by Senate. Votes: Passed 21 YES 0 NO 0 NOT VOTING 0 ABSENT 0 VACANT
2010-05-11		Reported Out of Committee (JUDICIARY) in Senate with 4 On Its Merits
2010-03-23		Assigned to Judiciary Committee in Senate
2010-03-18		Passed by House of Representatives. Votes: Passed 40 YES 0 NO 0 NOT VOTING 1 ABSENT 0 VACANT
2010-03-17		Reported Out of Committee (JUDICIARY) in House with 3 Favorable, 5 On Its Merits
2010-01-28		Introduced in House and assigned to Judiciary Committee
2010-01-28		Assigned to Judiciary Committee in House

Type	Source
Summary	http://legis.delaware.gov/LIS/lis145.nsf/2bede841c6272c888025698400433a04/b4e597ecbb51d454852576ab00620de0?OpenDocument
Text	http://legis.delaware.gov/LIS/lis145.nsf/vwLegislation/HB+322/$file/legis.html?open
Roll Call	http://legis.delaware.gov/LIS/lis145.nsf/7712cf7cc0e9227a852568470077336f/5275bc3e013230b2852576ea006e768d?OpenDocument
Roll Call	http://legis.delaware.gov/LIS/lis145.nsf/7712cf7cc0e9227a852568470077336f/e86af1dea06aeb4e85257721007187e2?OpenDocument