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---
type: "Bill"
title: "AN ACT TO AMEND TITLE 11 OF THE DELAWARE CODE RELATING TO CERTAIN CRIMES."
description: "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 Delawares Family Court system via the amenability process already enumerated in Title 10 § 1010 and § 1011."
jurisdiction: "us/states/de"
legislature: "Delaware General Assembly"
session: "149"
identifier: "HB 9"
citation: "Delaware HB 9 (149)"
classification: ["bill"]
subjects: []
status: "enacted"
primary_sponsors: ["Debra Heffernan", "Harris B. McDowell", "James Johnson", "Margaret Rose Henry"]
version_count: 1
action_count: 9
vote_count: 2
first_action: "2017-05-10"
last_action: "2017-10-12"
source: "openstates"
source_identifier: "ocd-bill/848f4779-d3d1-4719-81a4-701bf1630af8"
source_url: "https://legis.delaware.gov/BillDetail?LegislationId=25766"
source_hash: "bf06e468bac0771bc6225abeccc289f907881e1648616bc435d6de98f3440504"
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 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 Delawares 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](https://legis.delaware.gov/json/BillDetail/GenerateHtmlDocument?legislationId=25766&legislationTypeId=1&docTypeId=2&legislationName=HB9)
## Votes
- SM — **410** (pass) · lower
- SM — **134** (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](https://data.openstates.org/daily/2026-07-01/public.pgdump); origin `ocd-bill/848f4779-d3d1-4719-81a4-701bf1630af8`. Confidence: reported (aggregated from official Delaware legislature records).