Delaware House Bill 134

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Completed Legislative Action
Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Democrat 3-0)
Status: Passed on July 25 2023 - 100% progression
Action: 2023-07-25 - Signed by Governor
Text: Latest bill text (Draft #1) [HTML]

This is a housekeeping bill to remove outdated references to the term coroner in the Delaware Code. Created in 1682, the Office of the Coroner was one of the earliest elective offices in Delaware. The primary responsibility of the coroner was to investigate all cases in which a person died while in prison, was killed, died an unnatural death, or the circumstances of the death were unknown. It was also the duty of the coroner to arrest a person believed to have committed murder or manslaughter and to perform the duties of the sheriff when the sheriff was unavailable. The Office of the Coroner was abolished in 1969 and the responsibility for determining the cause of death is now the responsibility of the Medical Examiner. Today, it is outside the Medical Examiners scope of employment to perform many of the job duties that coroners were historically expected to do, and this bill clarifies that Medical Examiners are only responsible for investigating causes of death throughout the State under the provisions of Chapter 47 of Title 29, relating to forensic science.

An Act To Amend Titles 9, 10, 15, 16 And 29 Of The Delaware Code Relating To The Division Of Forensic Science And The Medical Examiner.

Rep. Franklin Cooke [D]

Sen. Nicole Poore [D]

Sen. Jack Walsh [D]

2023-06-30 - Senate - Senate Third Reading (Y: 21 N: 0 NV: 0 Abs: 0) [PASS]
2023-05-11 - House - House Third Reading (Y: 37 N: 0 NV: 0 Abs: 4) [PASS]

Date	Chamber	Action
2023-07-25		Signed by Governor
2023-06-30		Passed By Senate. Votes: 21 YES
2023-06-14		Reported Out of Committee (Corrections & Public Safety) in Senate with 4 On Its Merits
2023-05-11		Assigned to Corrections & Public Safety Committee in Senate
2023-05-11		Passed By House. Votes: 37 YES 4 ABSENT
2023-05-09		Reported Out of Committee (Public Safety & Homeland Security) in House with 7 Favorable
2023-05-02		Introduced and Assigned to Public Safety & Homeland Security Committee in House

Type	Source
Summary	https://legis.delaware.gov/BillDetail?LegislationId=130275
Text	https://legis.delaware.gov/json/BillDetail/GenerateHtmlDocument?legislationId=130275&legislationTypeId=1&docTypeId=2&legislationName=HB134
Roll Call	https://legis.delaware.gov/json/RollCall/GetRollCallVoteByRollCallId#54413
Roll Call	https://legis.delaware.gov/json/RollCall/GetRollCallVoteByRollCallId#55126