Opinion ID: 2308115
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Delaware Resisting Arrest Statute

Text: Under Title 11, section 1257 of the Delaware Code, [a] person is guilty of resisting arrest when the person intentionally prevents or attempts to prevent a peace officer from effecting an arrest or detention of the person or another person or intentionally flees from a peace officer who is effecting an arrest. In Jackson v. State , we held that knowledge of a police officer's status is not an element of the crime of resisting arrest. [7] Accordingly, [a] person may be found guilty of resisting arrest without any proof that the accused knew that it was a peace officer attempting to make the arrest. [8] In Jackson, the defendant had requested a jury instruction stating that in deciding whether Jackson acted `intentionally,' the jury must find that he knew or should have known that [the arresting officer] was a police officer. [9] The trial judge denied Jackson's request and instructed the jury that the defendant need not have known that [the arresting officer] was a police officer. [10] We affirmed Jackson's conviction for resisting arrest and held that the Superior Court properly declined to add the element of knowledge to the crime of resisting arrest. [11] In reaching that decision, we relied upon the following Commentary to section 1257: It will be recalled that this Criminal Code gives no right to resist an arrest by a police officer, whether or not the arrest was lawful and whether or not the accused knew the arrester was a police officer. [12]