---
type: "Bill"
title: "AN ACT TO AMEND TITLE 11 OF THE DELAWARE CODE RELATING TO SENTENCES FOR SEXUAL OFFENSES."
description: "In 2006, Delaware enacted “Jessica’s Law,” which requires first time offenders convicted of a specified sexual offense against a child under 14 years of age and individuals previously convicted of a Class A or B sexual offense in Title 11 and subsequently convicted of a specified sexual offense sentences be sentenced to at least 25 years in prison, up to life."
jurisdiction: "us/states/de"
legislature: "Delaware General Assembly"
session: "149"
identifier: "HB 259"
citation: "Delaware HB 259 (149)"
classification: ["bill"]
subjects: []
status: "enacted"
primary_sponsors: ["Andria L. Bennett", "Deborah Hudson", "Gregory F. Lavelle", "Joseph E. Miro", "Kimberly Williams"]
version_count: 1
action_count: 7
vote_count: 2
first_action: "2017-06-23"
last_action: "2018-07-01"
source: "openstates"
source_identifier: "ocd-bill/cb333fcf-7e7f-41de-b322-5e3d8b7a6250"
source_url: "https://legis.delaware.gov/BillDetail?LegislationId=26082"
source_hash: "a77110d402d9af9ec56ecf18d50da62f924453a6eae4a47e423a7af536ea1f0e"
vintage: "2026-07-01"
source_snapshot: "https://data.openstates.org/daily/2026-07-01/public.pgdump"
retrieved_at: "2026-07-06"
confidence: "reported"
tags: ["legislation", "bill", "us-de"]
---

# Delaware HB 259 (149) — AN ACT TO AMEND TITLE 11 OF THE DELAWARE CODE RELATING TO SENTENCES FOR SEXUAL OFFENSES.

In 2006, Delaware enacted “Jessica’s Law,” which requires first time offenders convicted of a specified sexual offense against a child under 14 years of age and individuals previously convicted of a Class A or B sexual offense in Title 11 and subsequently convicted of a specified sexual offense sentences be sentenced to at least 25 years in prison, up to life.

## Version chain

The bill's text revisions, in order — the diff chain from filing to enrollment.

1. **Bill Text** (committee substitute) — [source](https://legis.delaware.gov/json/BillDetail/GenerateHtmlDocument?legislationId=26082&legislationTypeId=1&docTypeId=2&legislationName=HB259)

## Votes

- SM — **19–0** (pass) · upper
- SM — **39–0** (pass) · lower

## Sponsors

- Andria L. Bennett — primary (person)
- Deborah Hudson — primary (person)
- Gregory F. Lavelle — primary (person)
- Joseph E. Miro — primary (person)
- Kimberly Williams — primary (person)
- Brian Pettyjohn — cosponsor (person)
- Bruce C. Ennis — cosponsor (person)
- Catherine Cloutier — cosponsor (person)
- Colin Bonini — cosponsor (person)
- David L. Wilson — cosponsor (person)
- Helene M. Keeley — cosponsor (person)
- John J. Viola — cosponsor (person)
- John L. Mitchell — cosponsor (person)
- Melanie George Smith — cosponsor (person)
- Michael Mulrooney — cosponsor (person)
- Ruth Briggs King — cosponsor (person)
- Sean M. Lynn — cosponsor (person)
- Stephen Smyk — cosponsor (person)

## Timeline

The legislative action history — every referral, reading, and vote.

- **2017-06-23** Introduced and Assigned to Judiciary Committee in House `introduction, referral-committee`
- **2017-06-29** Reported Out of Committee (Judiciary) in House with 5 On Its Merits, 1 Unfavorable `committee-passage, committee-passage-unfavorable`
- **2018-06-05** Passed By House. Votes: 39 YES 2 ABSENT `passage`
- **2018-06-05** Assigned to Judicial & Community Affairs Committee in Senate `introduction, referral-committee`
- **2018-06-13** Reported Out of Committee (Judicial & Community Affairs) in Senate with 4 On Its Merits `committee-passage`
- **2018-06-19** Passed By Senate. Votes: 19 YES 2 ABSENT `passage`
- **2018-07-01** Signed by Governor `executive-signature`

## Source

OpenStates / OpenCivicData bulk snapshot [2026-07-01](https://data.openstates.org/daily/2026-07-01/public.pgdump); origin `ocd-bill/cb333fcf-7e7f-41de-b322-5e3d8b7a6250`. Confidence: reported (aggregated from official Delaware legislature records).