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---
type: "Bill"
title: "AN ACT TO AMEND TITLE 10 OF THE DELAWARE CODE RELATING TO JUVENILE EXPUNGEMENTS."
description: "This bill fixes a drafting error in Senate Bill 198 of the 148th General Assembly that inadvertently made it harder for juveniles to get mandatory expungements by adding the term violent misdemeanor as an excepting factor that would prevent a youth from receiving an expungement. Previously, violent misdemeanors were never included in the states statute regarding mandatory expungements. The bill also strikes the definition of violent misdemeanor, which is no longer applicable to the states juvenile expungement statute.The phrase “sex offense” was added after the word “felony” for clarity and to mirror the definition in § 1016. No substantive change is made by this clarification."
jurisdiction: "us/states/de"
legislature: "Delaware General Assembly"
session: "149"
identifier: "HB 48"
citation: "Delaware HB 48 (149)"
classification: ["bill"]
subjects: []
status: "enacted"
primary_sponsors: ["Bryan Townsend", "Debra Heffernan", "James Johnson", "Valerie Longhurst"]
version_count: 1
action_count: 7
vote_count: 2
first_action: "2017-01-24"
last_action: "2017-05-18"
source: "openstates"
source_identifier: "ocd-bill/98b83935-b47d-46cc-a1d1-d3d82daa5448"
source_url: "https://legis.delaware.gov/BillDetail?LegislationId=25415"
source_hash: "fcd289422e00e9ef7bb083df7ed3b2e5ec671123517e8c7e99b794222605c66c"
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 48 (149) — AN ACT TO AMEND TITLE 10 OF THE DELAWARE CODE RELATING TO JUVENILE EXPUNGEMENTS.
This bill fixes a drafting error in Senate Bill 198 of the 148th General Assembly that inadvertently made it harder for juveniles to get mandatory expungements by adding the term violent misdemeanor as an excepting factor that would prevent a youth from receiving an expungement. Previously, violent misdemeanors were never included in the states statute regarding mandatory expungements. The bill also strikes the definition of violent misdemeanor, which is no longer applicable to the states juvenile expungement statute.The phrase “sex offense” was added after the word “felony” for clarity and to mirror the definition in § 1016. No substantive change is made by this clarification.
## 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=25415&legislationTypeId=1&docTypeId=2&legislationName=HB48)
## Votes
- SM — **370** (pass) · lower
- SM — **190** (pass) · upper
## Sponsors
- Bryan Townsend — primary (person)
- Debra Heffernan — primary (person)
- James Johnson — primary (person)
- Valerie Longhurst — primary (person)
- Ernesto B Lopez — cosponsor (person)
- Harris B. McDowell — cosponsor (person)
- John A. Kowalko — cosponsor (person)
- John J. Viola — cosponsor (person)
- Margaret Rose Henry — cosponsor (person)
- Ronald E. Gray — cosponsor (person)
- Sean M. Lynn — cosponsor (person)
- Stephanie T. Bolden — cosponsor (person)
## Timeline
The legislative action history — every referral, reading, and vote.
- **2017-01-24** Introduced and Assigned to Judiciary Committee in House `introduction, referral-committee`
- **2017-01-25** Reported Out of Committee (Judiciary) in House with 3 Favorable, 6 On Its Merits `committee-passage-favorable, committee-passage`
- **2017-03-21** Passed By House. Votes: 37 YES 4 ABSENT `passage`
- **2017-03-21** Assigned to Judicial & Community Affairs Committee in Senate `introduction, referral-committee`
- **2017-03-30** Reported Out of Committee (Judicial & Community Affairs) in Senate with 4 On Its Merits `committee-passage`
- **2017-04-04** Passed By Senate. Votes: 19 YES 2 ABSENT `passage`
- **2017-05-18** 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/98b83935-b47d-46cc-a1d1-d3d82daa5448`. Confidence: reported (aggregated from official Delaware legislature records).