republic-os/legislation/us/states/de/151/hb-115.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 10 OF THE DELAWARE CODE RELATING TO JUVENILE PROSECUTION.	United States Supreme Court case law and scientific research has changed how we think about juvenile delinquency. We know now that an adolescent’s brain is not fully developed until the mid-twenties which makes juveniles especially prone to poor decision-making. In the landmark case of Miller v. Alabama, in which the United States Supreme Court prohibited mandatory life sentences without parole for juveniles on the rationale that children are inherently different than adults, the Court relied not only scientific research but on common sense and what any parent knows: kids will be kids.	us/states/de	Delaware General Assembly	151	HB 115	Delaware HB 115 (151)	bill		enacted	Bryan Townsend Darius J. Brown Debra Heffernan Nnamdi O. Chukwuocha Sherry Dorsey Walker	1	7	2	2021-03-16	2021-11-08	openstates	ocd-bill/72d39d33-632c-4465-b861-73c28293e40c	https://legis.delaware.gov/BillDetail?LegislationId=48463	cc2f1d915c34fe8580cde2b78dd26256743de39c4f11c742f0abc0b8ea9ed7de	2026-07-01	https://data.openstates.org/daily/2026-07-01/public.pgdump	2026-07-06	reported	legislation bill us-de

Delaware HB 115 (151) — AN ACT TO AMEND TITLE 10 OF THE DELAWARE CODE RELATING TO JUVENILE PROSECUTION.

United States Supreme Court case law and scientific research has changed how we think about juvenile delinquency. We know now that an adolescent’s brain is not fully developed until the mid-twenties which makes juveniles especially prone to poor decision-making. In the landmark case of Miller v. Alabama, in which the United States Supreme Court prohibited mandatory life sentences without parole for juveniles on the rationale that children are inherently different than adults, the Court relied not only scientific research but on common sense and what any parent knows: kids will be kids.

Version chain

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

1. Bill Text (committee substitute) — source

Votes

• SM — 40–0 (pass) · lower
• SM — 21–0 (pass) · upper

Sponsors

• Bryan Townsend — primary (person)
• Darius J. Brown — primary (person)
• Debra Heffernan — primary (person)
• Nnamdi O. Chukwuocha — primary (person)
• Sherry Dorsey Walker — primary (person)
• David P. Sokola — cosponsor (person)
• Eric Morrison — cosponsor (person)
• Franklin D. Cooke — cosponsor (person)
• John A. Kowalko — cosponsor (person)
• Kendra Johnson — cosponsor (person)
• Krista Griffith — cosponsor (person)
• Larry Lambert — cosponsor (person)
• Madinah Wilson-Anton — cosponsor (person)
• Paul S. Baumbach — cosponsor (person)
• Sarah McBride — cosponsor (person)
• Sean M. Lynn — cosponsor (person)
• Trey Paradee — cosponsor (person)
• Valerie Longhurst — cosponsor (person)

Timeline

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

• 2021-03-16 Introduced and Assigned to Judiciary Committee in House introduction, referral-committee
• 2021-03-23 Reported Out of Committee (Judiciary) in House with 4 Favorable, 5 On Its Merits committee-passage, committee-passage-favorable
• 2021-06-17 Passed By House. Votes: 40 YES 1 ABSENT passage
• 2021-06-17 Assigned to Judiciary Committee in Senate introduction, referral-committee
• 2021-06-23 Reported Out of Committee (Judiciary) in Senate with 3 Favorable, 2 On Its Merits committee-passage, committee-passage-favorable
• 2021-06-29 Passed By Senate. Votes: 21 YES passage
• 2021-11-08 Signed by Governor executive-signature

Source

OpenStates / OpenCivicData bulk snapshot 2026-07-01; origin ocd-bill/72d39d33-632c-4465-b861-73c28293e40c. Confidence: reported (aggregated from official Delaware legislature records).