---
type: "Bill"
title: "AN ACT TO AMEND TITLE 11 OF THE DELAWARE CODE RELATING TO USE OF FORCE."
description: "This Act codifies a reasonableness requirement for the use of force, both non-lethal and lethal. This is important when the state of mind is an issue in a criminal trial, such as when the judge or jury must decide as to what someone believed, knew, or intended at a given time."
jurisdiction: "us/states/de"
legislature: "Delaware General Assembly"
session: "151"
identifier: "SB 147"
citation: "Delaware SB 147 (151)"
classification: ["bill"]
subjects: []
status: "enacted"
primary_sponsors: ["Marie Pinkney", "S. Elizabeth Lockman", "Sherry Dorsey Walker"]
version_count: 1
action_count: 12
vote_count: 2
first_action: "2021-05-25"
last_action: "2021-06-30"
source: "openstates"
source_identifier: "ocd-bill/561f44fd-71b6-4325-bbb6-cdb126bbad7e"
source_url: "https://legis.delaware.gov/BillDetail?LegislationId=78765"
source_hash: "22d417990a46afd941aebfda292d9552bd709f0a90609aeb26445326d73c2deb"
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 SB 147 (151) — AN ACT TO AMEND TITLE 11 OF THE DELAWARE CODE RELATING TO USE OF FORCE.

This Act codifies a reasonableness requirement for the use of force, both non-lethal and lethal. This is important when the state of mind is an issue in a criminal trial, such as when the judge or jury must decide as to what someone believed, knew, or intended at a given time.

## 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=78765&legislationTypeId=1&docTypeId=2&legislationName=SB147)

## Votes

- SM — **25–16** (pass) · lower
- SM — **14–7** (pass) · upper

## Sponsors

- Marie Pinkney — primary (person)
- S. Elizabeth Lockman — primary (person)
- Sherry Dorsey Walker — primary (person)
- Bryan Townsend — cosponsor (person)
- David Bentz — cosponsor (person)
- David P. Sokola — cosponsor (person)
- Eric Morrison — cosponsor (person)
- John A. Kowalko — cosponsor (person)
- Kyle Evans Gay — cosponsor (person)
- Larry Lambert — cosponsor (person)
- Laura V. Sturgeon — cosponsor (person)
- Madinah Wilson-Anton — cosponsor (person)
- Paul S. Baumbach — cosponsor (person)
- Sarah McBride — cosponsor (person)
- Sherae'a Moore — cosponsor (person)
- Stephanie L. Hansen — cosponsor (person)
- Trey Paradee — cosponsor (person)

## Timeline

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

- **2021-05-25** Introduced and Assigned to Judiciary Committee in Senate `introduction, referral-committee`
- **2021-06-08** Reported Out of Committee (Judiciary) in Senate with 3 Favorable `committee-passage, committee-passage-favorable`
- **2021-06-10** Passed By Senate. Votes: 14 YES 7 NO `passage`
- **2021-06-11** Assigned to Public Safety & Homeland Security Committee in House `introduction, referral-committee`
- **2021-06-17** Reported Out of Committee (Public Safety & Homeland Security) in House with 1 Favorable, 4 On Its Merits, 1 Unfavorable `committee-passage, committee-passage-favorable, committee-passage-unfavorable`
- **2021-06-22** Amendment HA 1 to SB 147 - Introduced and Placed With Bill `amendment-introduction`
- **2021-06-25** Amendment HA 2 to SB 147 - Introduced and Placed With Bill `amendment-introduction`
- **2021-06-28** Amendment HA 3 to SB 147 - Introduced and Placed With Bill `amendment-introduction`
- **2021-06-29** Amendment HA 4 to SB 147 - Introduced and Placed With Bill `amendment-introduction`
- **2021-06-29** Amendment HA 2 to SB 147 - Defeated By House. Votes: 3 YES 38 NO `amendment-failure`
- **2021-06-29** Passed By House. Votes: 25 YES 16 NO `passage`
- **2021-06-30** 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/561f44fd-71b6-4325-bbb6-cdb126bbad7e`. Confidence: reported (aggregated from official Delaware legislature records).