CHAPTER 231

GENERAL PROVISIONS CONCERNING CRIMES AND PUNISHMENTS

AN ACT to amend Chapter 155 of the Revised Code of the State of Delaware, relating to crimes and punishments.

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the State of Delaware in General Assembly met:

Sec. 1. That Chapter 155 of the Revised Code of the State of Delaware, as amended, be and the same is hereby amended by adding at the end of said Chapter 155 the following new section, to be known as 4847 B Sec. 44:

4847 B Sec. 44. No writ of error or writ of certiorari issuing from the Supreme Court in any criminal cause shall operate as a stay of execution of the sentence of the trial court unless such writ of error or writ of certiorari be sued out within thirty days from the date of final judgment in the court below, and unless the plaintiff in error shall obtain from the trial court (or, if the trial court refuse, then from the Chancellor or one of the Judges of the Supreme Court) a certificate that there is reasonable ground to believe that there is error in the record which might require a reversal of the judgment below, or that the record presents an important question of substantive law which ought to be decided by the Supreme Court, and unless the plaintiff in error shall furnish bond to The State of Delaware, with surety to be approved and in an amount to be fixed by the Chancellor or one of the Judges of the Supreme Court, conditioned as may now or hereafter be prescribed by rule of court: Provided, however, that in cases where sentence of life imprisonment shall have been imposed, there shall be no stay of execution, and no supersedeas bond taken or allowed ; and that in cases where sentence of death shall have been imposed, the trial court, if the certificate above provided for shall have been granted, shall be empowered to stay the execution of the death penalty pending the determination of the cause by the Supreme Court, but the defendant below shall not be released from custody.

Approved April 12, A. D. 1927.