---
type: "Bill"
title: "AN ACT TO AMEND TITLE 11 OF THE DELAWARE CODE RELATING TO PROBATION BEFORE JUDGMENT."
description: "This bill clarifies that Probation Before Judgment (PBJ) may be entered for multiple charges arising from a single arrest. Changes to the legislation also allow for a defendant to be permitted Probation Before Judgment more than once in a five year period so long as offenses are in different titles of the Code. For example, a defendant who was granted PBJ in 2017 for speeding (title 21) would be eligible for PBJ on a title 11 charge (e.g. bad check) or title 4 (e.g. underage consumption of alcohol) in 2019."
jurisdiction: "us/states/de"
legislature: "Delaware General Assembly"
session: "151"
identifier: "SB 39"
citation: "Delaware SB 39 (151)"
classification: ["bill"]
subjects: []
status: "enacted"
primary_sponsors: ["Darius J. Brown", "Kyle Evans Gay", "Larry Lambert", "Sean M. Lynn", "Sherry Dorsey Walker", "William Bush"]
version_count: 1
action_count: 8
vote_count: 2
first_action: "2021-03-09"
last_action: "2021-04-13"
source: "openstates"
source_identifier: "ocd-bill/ee407375-3336-472c-966c-78e80d6bdb4d"
source_url: "https://legis.delaware.gov/BillDetail?LegislationId=48426"
source_hash: "7239fc793389de2365003ec2101185f270490489d3d40cdd8cc5e6928fbab12d"
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 39 (151) — AN ACT TO AMEND TITLE 11 OF THE DELAWARE CODE RELATING TO PROBATION BEFORE JUDGMENT.

This bill clarifies that Probation Before Judgment (PBJ) may be entered for multiple charges arising from a single arrest. Changes to the legislation also allow for a defendant to be permitted Probation Before Judgment more than once in a five year period so long as offenses are in different titles of the Code. For example, a defendant who was granted PBJ in 2017 for speeding (title 21) would be eligible for PBJ on a title 11 charge (e.g. bad check) or title 4 (e.g. underage consumption of alcohol) in 2019.

## 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=48426&legislationTypeId=1&docTypeId=2&legislationName=SB39)

## Votes

- SM — **41–0** (pass) · lower
- SM — **21–0** (pass) · upper

## Sponsors

- Darius J. Brown — primary (person)
- Kyle Evans Gay — primary (person)
- Larry Lambert — primary (person)
- Sean M. Lynn — primary (person)
- Sherry Dorsey Walker — primary (person)
- William Bush — primary (person)
- Bryan Townsend — cosponsor (person)
- Eric Morrison — cosponsor (person)
- John A. Kowalko — cosponsor (person)
- Marie Pinkney — cosponsor (person)
- Paul S. Baumbach — cosponsor (person)
- S. Elizabeth Lockman — cosponsor (person)
- Sarah McBride — cosponsor (person)
- Spiros Mantzavinos — cosponsor (person)

## Timeline

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

- **2021-03-09** Introduced and Assigned to Judiciary Committee in Senate `introduction, referral-committee`
- **2021-03-10** Reported Out of Committee (Judiciary) in Senate with 4 Favorable, 2 On Its Merits `committee-passage, committee-passage-favorable`
- **2021-03-11** Passed By Senate. Votes: 21 YES `passage`
- **2021-03-12** Assigned to Judiciary Committee in House `introduction, referral-committee`
- **2021-03-16** Reported Out of Committee (Judiciary) in House with 4 Favorable, 2 On Its Merits `committee-passage, committee-passage-favorable`
- **2021-03-26** Suspension of Rules in House
- **2021-04-01** Passed By House. Votes: 41 YES `passage`
- **2021-04-13** 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/ee407375-3336-472c-966c-78e80d6bdb4d`. Confidence: reported (aggregated from official Delaware legislature records).