republic-os/legislation/us/states/de/150/hb-78.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 CRIMES AND CRIMINAL PROCEDURE.	This Act aims to make the robbery section of Delaware’s Criminal Code simpler and fairer. The Act deletes the carjacking sections and embeds them within the existing robbery statutes to remove duplication from the code. Under this Act, robbery in the first degree includes the theft of a vehicle where there is physical injury or the use, a display or threat of a deadly weapon or death which is a Class B felony; this carries a 3 year minimum mandatory sentence and a maximum sentence of 25 years in prison. Robbery in the Second Degree, a Class E felony, is elevated to a Class D felony if the theft involves a vehicle and elements that pose additional risk to public safety. The Act removes minimum mandatory sentences for some conduct and eliminates sentence enhancements based on prior convictions and the age of victim. The ability to impose lengthier sentences for subsequent conduct or for crimes against vulnerable victims rests with the discretion of sentencing judges.	us/states/de	Delaware General Assembly	150	HB 78	Delaware HB 78 (150)	bill		enacted	David P. Sokola Debra Heffernan Stephanie T. Bolden	2	8	2	2019-05-30	2019-09-16	openstates	ocd-bill/ed76692c-8814-49ee-94e9-72f9674d25f4	https://legis.delaware.gov/BillDetail?LegislationId=47548	393cdd3127570256e2b93e91145c2f45d65f86366fbe457a97297cf70292e550	2026-07-01	https://data.openstates.org/daily/2026-07-01/public.pgdump	2026-07-06	reported	legislation bill us-de

Delaware HB 78 (150) — AN ACT TO AMEND TITLE 11 OF THE DELAWARE CODE RELATING TO CRIMES AND CRIMINAL PROCEDURE.

This Act aims to make the robbery section of Delaware’s Criminal Code simpler and fairer. The Act deletes the carjacking sections and embeds them within the existing robbery statutes to remove duplication from the code. Under this Act, robbery in the first degree includes the theft of a vehicle where there is physical injury or the use, a display or threat of a deadly weapon or death which is a Class B felony; this carries a 3 year minimum mandatory sentence and a maximum sentence of 25 years in prison. Robbery in the Second Degree, a Class E felony, is elevated to a Class D felony if the theft involves a vehicle and elements that pose additional risk to public safety. The Act removes minimum mandatory sentences for some conduct and eliminates sentence enhancements based on prior convictions and the age of victim. The ability to impose lengthier sentences for subsequent conduct or for crimes against vulnerable victims rests with the discretion of sentencing judges.

Version chain

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

1. Bill Text (committee substitute) — source
2. HA 1 to HB 78 (committee substitute) — source

Votes

• SM — 25–16 (pass) · lower
• SM — 15–5 (pass) · upper

Sponsors

• David P. Sokola — primary (person)
• Debra Heffernan — primary (person)
• Stephanie T. Bolden — primary (person)
• Bryan Townsend — cosponsor (person)
• David Bentz — cosponsor (person)
• Franklin D. Cooke — cosponsor (person)
• Gerald L. Brady — cosponsor (person)
• Melissa Minor-Brown — cosponsor (person)
• Paul S. Baumbach — cosponsor (person)
• S. Elizabeth Lockman — cosponsor (person)
• Valerie Longhurst — cosponsor (person)

Timeline

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

• 2019-05-30 Introduced and Assigned to Public Safety & Homeland Security Committee in House introduction, referral-committee
• 2019-06-05 Reported Out of Committee (Public Safety & Homeland Security) in House with 6 Unfavorable committee-passage-unfavorable, committee-passage
• 2019-06-25 Amendment HA 1 to HB 78 - Introduced and Placed With Bill amendment-introduction
• 2019-06-25 Amendment HA 1 to HB 78 - Passed In House by Voice Vote amendment-passage
• 2019-06-25 Passed By House. Votes: 25 YES 16 NO passage
• 2019-06-30 Suspension of Rules in Senate
• 2019-06-30 Passed By Senate. Votes: 15 YES 5 NO 1 ABSENT passage
• 2019-09-16 Signed by Governor executive-signature

Source

OpenStates / OpenCivicData bulk snapshot 2026-07-01; origin ocd-bill/ed76692c-8814-49ee-94e9-72f9674d25f4. Confidence: reported (aggregated from official Delaware legislature records).