---
type: "Bill"
title: "AN ACT TO AMEND TITLE 11 THE DELAWARE CODE RELATING TO CHOKEHOLDS."
description: "This Act creates the crime of Aggravated Strangulation. A person is guilty of Aggravated Strangulation if the person is a law-enforcement officer, and while acting within the person’s official capacity as a law-enforcement officer, knowingly or intentionally uses a chokehold on another person. Under this Act, a chokehold is only justifiable when the person reasonably believes deadly force is warranted in order to protect the life of a civilian or law-enforcement officer. Aggravated Strangulation is a Class D felony unless the law-enforcement officer using a chokehold causes serious physical injury or death to another person thereby elevating the crime to a Class C felony. This Act also makes clear that if a person is charged under this section, such a charge shall not preclude or limit the State or any other prosecuting agency from bringing other criminal charges against the person."
jurisdiction: "us/states/de"
legislature: "Delaware General Assembly"
session: "150"
identifier: "HB 350"
citation: "Delaware HB 350 (150)"
classification: ["bill"]
subjects: []
status: "enacted"
primary_sponsors: ["Darius J. Brown", "Franklin D. Cooke", "Kendra Johnson", "Melissa Minor-Brown", "Nnamdi O. Chukwuocha", "S. Elizabeth Lockman", "Sherry Dorsey Walker", "Stephanie T. Bolden"]
version_count: 1
action_count: 9
vote_count: 2
first_action: "2020-06-17"
last_action: "2020-08-13"
source: "openstates"
source_identifier: "ocd-bill/379a87e4-fb3d-49e6-967f-64080586a842"
source_url: "https://legis.delaware.gov/BillDetail?LegislationId=48157"
source_hash: "b7ffafb414bffa07e013be59a3458307fb91ac58438c28baef0b2f7d35acc170"
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 350 (150) — AN ACT TO AMEND TITLE 11 THE DELAWARE CODE RELATING TO CHOKEHOLDS.

This Act creates the crime of Aggravated Strangulation. A person is guilty of Aggravated Strangulation if the person is a law-enforcement officer, and while acting within the person’s official capacity as a law-enforcement officer, knowingly or intentionally uses a chokehold on another person. Under this Act, a chokehold is only justifiable when the person reasonably believes deadly force is warranted in order to protect the life of a civilian or law-enforcement officer. Aggravated Strangulation is a Class D felony unless the law-enforcement officer using a chokehold causes serious physical injury or death to another person thereby elevating the crime to a Class C felony. This Act also makes clear that if a person is charged under this section, such a charge shall not preclude or limit the State or any other prosecuting agency from bringing other criminal charges against the person.

## 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=48157&legislationTypeId=1&docTypeId=2&legislationName=HB350)

## Votes

- SM — **16–5** (pass) · upper
- SM — **41–0** (pass) · lower

## Sponsors

- Darius J. Brown — primary (person)
- Franklin D. Cooke — primary (person)
- Kendra Johnson — primary (person)
- Melissa Minor-Brown — primary (person)
- Nnamdi O. Chukwuocha — primary (person)
- S. Elizabeth Lockman — primary (person)
- Sherry Dorsey Walker — primary (person)
- Stephanie T. Bolden — primary (person)
- Andria L. Bennett — cosponsor (person)
- Bruce C. Ennis — cosponsor (person)
- Bryan Townsend — cosponsor (person)
- Catherine Cloutier — cosponsor (person)
- David B. McBride — cosponsor (person)
- David Bentz — cosponsor (person)
- David P. Sokola — cosponsor (person)
- Debra Heffernan — cosponsor (person)
- Earl G. Jaques Jr. — cosponsor (person)
- Edward S. Osienski — cosponsor (person)
- Gerald L. Brady — cosponsor (person)
- Harris B. McDowell — cosponsor (person)
- John "Jack" Walsh — cosponsor (person)
- John A. Kowalko — cosponsor (person)
- John J. Viola — cosponsor (person)
- John L. Mitchell — cosponsor (person)
- Kimberly Williams — cosponsor (person)
- Krista Griffith — cosponsor (person)
- Laura V. Sturgeon — cosponsor (person)
- Nicole Poore — cosponsor (person)
- Paul S. Baumbach — cosponsor (person)
- Peter C. Schwartzkopf — cosponsor (person)
- Quinton Johnson — cosponsor (person)
- Raymond Seigfried — cosponsor (person)
- Sean M. Lynn — cosponsor (person)
- Sean Matthews — cosponsor (person)
- Stephanie L. Hansen — cosponsor (person)
- Trey Paradee — cosponsor (person)
- Valerie Longhurst — cosponsor (person)
- William Bush — cosponsor (person)
- William J. Carson — cosponsor (person)

## Timeline

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

- **2020-06-17** Introduced and Assigned to Administration Committee in House `introduction, referral-committee`
- **2020-06-18** Amendment HA 1 to HB 350 - Introduced and Placed With Bill `amendment-introduction`
- **2020-06-22** Reported Out of Committee (Administration) in House with 2 Favorable, 3 On Its Merits `committee-passage-favorable, committee-passage`
- **2020-06-24** Amendment SA 1 to HB 350 - Introduced and Placed With Bill `amendment-introduction`
- **2020-06-25** Passed By House. Votes: 41 YES `passage`
- **2020-06-25** Suspension of Rules in Senate
- **2020-06-25** Amendment SA 1 to HB 350 - Defeated By Senate. Votes: 6 YES 15 NO `amendment-failure`
- **2020-06-25** Passed By Senate. Votes: 16 YES 5 NO `passage`
- **2020-08-13** 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/379a87e4-fb3d-49e6-967f-64080586a842`. Confidence: reported (aggregated from official Delaware legislature records).