CHAPTER 276.
OF OFFENSES AGAINST PUBLIC POLICY
AN ACT to prevent Tampering with Legislative Proceedings.
Be it enacted by Ike Senate and House of Representatives of The State of Delaware in General Assembly met;
SECTION 1. That whosoever shall willfully add to, alter, deface, erase, obliterate, mutilate, blot, blur, steal, hide, conceal, destroy or misplace, with intent to conceal, any bill pending before either branch of the General Assembly of this State, or any committee thereof, or any joint committee of the two houses, shall be guilty of felony, and upon conviction thereof shall pay a fine of not less than one hundred nor more than five thousand dollars and costs of prosecution, shall be publicly whipped with not less than ten nor more than thirty lashes, and shall also be imprisoned not less than one nor more than ten years. And whosoever shall in like manner add to, alter, deface, erase, obliterate, mutilate, blot, blur, steal, hide, conceal, e' destroy, or misplace, with intent to conceal, any act passed by the said General Assembly, shall be guilty of a like offense, and shall be punished in like manner.
SECTION 2. A bill, within the meaning of this act, shall be taken as pending from the time of its introduction until enrolled and signed by the speakers of both houses. It shall then be and be taken as and for an act.
SECTION 3. Alterations or amendments made in the regular course of proceedings shall not be construed as a violation of the first section of this act.
SECTION 4. Nothing herein contained shall be construed to prevent or limit either house from punishing for contempts according to parliamentary usage, nor shall any such punishment for contempts be construed to prevent or limit prosecutions under the first section of this act.
Passed at Dover, May 13, 1891.