republic-os/legislation/us/states/de/149/hb-9.md

type, title, description, jurisdiction, legislature, session, identifier, citation, classification, subjects, status, primary_sponsors, version_count, action_count, vote_count, first_action, last_action, source, source_identifier, source_url, source_hash, vintage, source_snapshot, retrieved_at, confidence, tags

type	title	description	jurisdiction	legislature	session	identifier	citation	classification	subjects	status	primary_sponsors	version_count	action_count	vote_count	first_action	last_action	source	source_identifier	source_url	source_hash	vintage	source_snapshot	retrieved_at	confidence	tags
Bill	AN ACT TO AMEND TITLE 11 OF THE DELAWARE CODE RELATING TO CERTAIN CRIMES.	This bill allows judicial discretion when juveniles are charged with any of the five specific offenses carved out in state code that say a juvenile of 16 or older, or 15 in the case of § 1447A, must be prosecuted as an adult. The bill simply changes the language from ‘shall’ to ‘may’ to allow judges to weigh the possibility that the juvenile may be better served in Delaware’s Family Court system via the amenability process already enumerated in Title 10 § 1010 and § 1011.	us/states/de	Delaware General Assembly	149	HB 9	Delaware HB 9 (149)	bill		enacted	Debra Heffernan Harris B. McDowell James Johnson Margaret Rose Henry	1	9	2	2017-05-10	2017-10-12	openstates	ocd-bill/848f4779-d3d1-4719-81a4-701bf1630af8	https://legis.delaware.gov/BillDetail?LegislationId=25766	bf06e468bac0771bc6225abeccc289f907881e1648616bc435d6de98f3440504	2026-07-01	https://data.openstates.org/daily/2026-07-01/public.pgdump	2026-07-06	reported	legislation bill us-de

Delaware HB 9 (149) — AN ACT TO AMEND TITLE 11 OF THE DELAWARE CODE RELATING TO CERTAIN CRIMES.

This bill allows judicial discretion when juveniles are charged with any of the five specific offenses carved out in state code that say a juvenile of 16 or older, or 15 in the case of § 1447A, must be prosecuted as an adult. The bill simply changes the language from ‘shall’ to ‘may’ to allow judges to weigh the possibility that the juvenile may be better served in Delaware’s Family Court system via the amenability process already enumerated in Title 10 § 1010 and § 1011.

Version chain

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

1. Bill Text (committee substitute) — source

Votes

• SM — 41–0 (pass) · lower
• SM — 13–4 (pass) · upper

Sponsors

• Debra Heffernan — primary (person)
• Harris B. McDowell — primary (person)
• James Johnson — primary (person)
• Margaret Rose Henry — primary (person)
• Bruce C. Ennis — cosponsor (person)
• Bryan Townsend — cosponsor (person)
• Charles Potter Jr. — cosponsor (person)
• Gerald L. Brady — cosponsor (person)
• Helene M. Keeley — cosponsor (person)
• John A. Kowalko — cosponsor (person)
• Paul S. Baumbach — cosponsor (person)
• Sean M. Lynn — cosponsor (person)
• Trey Charles Paradee — cosponsor (person)
• Valerie Longhurst — cosponsor (person)

Timeline

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

• 2017-05-10 Introduced and Assigned to Judiciary Committee in House introduction, referral-committee
• 2017-05-17 Amendment HA 1 to HB 9 - Introduced and Placed With Bill amendment-introduction
• 2017-05-17 Reported Out of Committee (Judiciary) in House with 9 On Its Merits committee-passage
• 2017-06-27 Amendment HA 1 to HB 9 - Passed In House by Voice Vote amendment-passage
• 2017-06-27 Passed By House. Votes: 41 YES passage
• 2017-06-27 Assigned to Judicial & Community Affairs Committee in Senate introduction, referral-committee
• 2017-06-29 Reported Out of Committee (Judicial & Community Affairs) in Senate with 3 On Its Merits committee-passage
• 2017-06-30 Passed By Senate. Votes: 13 YES 4 NO 4 NOT VOTING passage
• 2017-10-12 Signed by Governor executive-signature

Source

OpenStates / OpenCivicData bulk snapshot 2026-07-01; origin ocd-bill/848f4779-d3d1-4719-81a4-701bf1630af8. Confidence: reported (aggregated from official Delaware legislature records).