SPONSOR:	Sen. DeLuca & Rep. Mitchell;
	Sens. Adams, Cook, Ennis; Reps. Atkins, Bennett, Carson, Lavelle, D. Short

DELAWARE STATE SENATE

145th GENERAL ASSEMBLY

SENATE BILL NO. 60

AN ACT PROPOSING AN AMENDMENT TO ARTICLE I, SECTION 12 OF THE DELAWARE CONSTITUTION OF 1897 RELATING TO CRIMINAL PROCEDURES.

BE IT ENACTED BY THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF THE STATE OF DELAWARE (Two-thirds of all members elected to each house thereof concurring therein):

Section 1. Amend §12, Article I of the Delaware Constitution of 1897 by deleting the phrase “capital offenses” and inserting in lieu thereof the phrase “capital offenses or such other offenses as the General Assembly may from time to time prescribe by law,”.

SYNOPSIS

This Act is the first leg of a constitutional amendment that will modernize the bail provisions within the Delaware Constitution and clarify the power of the General Assembly to define either certain offenses for which, or circumstances under which, pre-trial release on bail may not be available.

The provision that states that only “capital offenses” are not bailable first appeared in its present form in the Delaware Constitution of 1792. At that time, “capital offenses” included many more offenses than the term does today, when the only capital offense is murder first degree, 11 Del. C. §636, when there is a statutory aggravating factor. For example, in 1792, manslaughter, rape, robbery, and burglary were capital offenses, and therefore included within the non-bailable classification. Thus, over time, other crimes that the Framers intended to include as those for which bail might be restricted have become bailable.

This Act provides that those offenses which may not permit release on bail may, in addition to capital murder, include those crimes “as the General Assembly may from time to time prescribe by law, when the proof is positive or the presumption great.” This change to Article I, Section 12 will permit the General Assembly to define those offenses that may subject one to a denial of bail. It preserves the state constitutional protection of due process through proof positive hearings related to such offenses. Laws that limit access to bail would be consistent with many other states’ bail laws and practices, and would be constitutional within the meaning of the Eighth Amendment to the United States Constitution.

Author: Senator DeLuca