Opinion ID: 2304700
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 9

Heading: Delaware Criminal Code

Text: In 1965, as part of a national movement to review American substantive criminal law, former Chief Justice and then Governor, Charles L. Terry, Jr., appointed a committee to study the need for criminal law reform in Delaware. DELAWARE CRIMINAL CODE WITH COMMENTARY Introduction (1973). The co-chair of that committee was E. Norman Veasey, the current Delaware Chief Justice, who was then a practicing attorney. Id. That committee proposed a criminal code for Delaware in 1967. Id. After years of additional study, the Delaware Criminal Code passed both houses of the General Assembly and was approved by the Governor on July 6, 1972. Id. The changes that were made in the proposed Code were primarily to increase certain penalties, to include certain specific offenses which had been omitted as unnecessary in view of the definition of other offenses in the proposed Code and to introduce other changes which were thought to be in the interest of improved law enforcement. Id. After passage of the Code, a new committee was established to supervise revision and updating of the commentary on the Code and to arrange for publication and dissemination of the Code in its final form. Id. The chairman of that committee was Justice Joseph T. Walsh, who was then a Superior Court Judge. Id. Following the new committee's efforts, the revised Delaware Criminal Code was implemented in 1973. The provisions that were ultimately adopted for Delaware are primarily a composite of the Model Penal Code and the New York Penal Law. Id.; see also PROPOSED DELAWARE CRIMINAL CODE WITH COMMENTARY Appendix C (1967). The provisions that are relevant to Chance's appeal are 11 Del.C. § 271 (Section 271) and Section 274. Section 271 of the Delaware Code is based upon Model Penal Code Section 2.06(1)-(3). PROPOSED DELAWARE CRIMINAL CODE WITH COMMENTARY Appendix C (1967). Section 274 is based upon Section 20.15 of the New York Penal Law and has no counterpart in the Model Penal Code. Id. In fact, only approximately four other states have a provision that corresponds with Delaware's Section 274. [3] See MODEL PENAL CODE AND COMMENTARIES Part I, 322 n. 71 (1985).