Delaware Senate Bill 54 (Prior Session Legislation)

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Completed Legislative Action
Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Democrat 14-0)
Status: Passed on June 20 2017 - 100% progression
Action: 2017-06-20 - Signed by Governor
Text: Latest bill text (Draft #1) [HTML]

The continued existence and dissemination of a juvenile criminal record hampers an individuals ability to become a successful and productive member of society. These criminal histories are a hindrance to employment, education, housing and credit. This act modifies Delawares discretionary expungement provisions to allow more children, and adults with only juvenile records, the ability to petition the Court for an expungement. An adult conviction automatically disqualifies someone from seeking an expungement to their juvenile record. These changes would allow the Court to consider an expungement where a person with a juvenile record has demonstrated rehabilitation. These provisions will enable a greater number of deserving youth, and adults with only juvenile records, the ability to move beyond their past and recognizes that most youth mature out of offending behavior. This legislation builds on a bill passed by a bipartisan group of lawmakers during the 148th General Assembly. Senate Bill 198 streamlined the process for an individual to expunge their juvenile record. This proposed expansion removes certain prohibitions that prevent an individual from ever seeking a discretionary expungement, streamlines the scenarios of which a person with a juvenile record is eligible to seek a discretionary expungement, and creates a fair catch-all provision for those seeking an expungement to their juvenile record in cases where they were found delinquent in multiple cases, but had not been adjudicated or convicted of another crime since. This allows for eligible juveniles, and adults with only juvenile records, to seek discretionary expungements, wherein the Court would decide whether or not a person had rehabilitated.

An Act To Amend Title 10 Of The Delaware Code Relating To Juvenile Expungements.

Sen. Bryan Townsend [D]	Sen. Margaret Henry [D]	Rep. Valerie Longhurst [D]	Rep. Debra Heffernan [D]
Rep. James Johnson [D]	Rep. Paul Baumbach [D]	Rep. David Bentz [D]	Rep. John Kowalko [D]
Rep. Sean Lynn [D]	Rep. Edward Osienski [D]	Sen. Charles Paradee [D]	Rep. John Viola [D]
Rep. Kimberly Williams [D]	Rep. Helene Keeley [D]

2017-06-15 - House - House Third Reading (Y: 40 N: 0 NV: 0 Abs: 1) [PASS]
2017-04-27 - Senate - Senate Third Reading (Y: 17 N: 0 NV: 0 Abs: 4) [PASS]

Date	Chamber	Action
2017-06-20		Signed by Governor
2017-06-15		Passed By House. Votes: 40 YES 1 ABSENT
2017-05-17		Reported Out of Committee (Judiciary) in House with 4 Favorable, 5 On Its Merits
2017-05-02		Assigned to Judiciary Committee in House
2017-04-27		Passed By Senate. Votes: 17 YES 4 ABSENT
2017-04-06		Reported Out of Committee (Judicial & Community Affairs) in Senate with 3 On Its Merits
2017-03-30		Introduced and Assigned to Judicial & Community Affairs Committee in Senate

Type	Source
Summary	http://legis.delaware.gov/BillDetail?LegislationId=25574
Text	http://legis.delaware.gov/json/BillDetail/GenerateHtmlDocument?legislationId=25574&legislationTypeId=1&docTypeId=2&legislationName=SB54
Roll Call	http://legis.delaware.gov/json/RollCall/GetRollCallVoteByRollCallId#18515
Roll Call	http://legis.delaware.gov/json/RollCall/GetRollCallVoteByRollCallId#18814