Opinion ID: 2805142
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: the truth in sentencing act

Text: The General Assembly passed the Truth In Sentencing Act on July 17, 1989, to provide more certainty about the length of sentences to be served by criminal defendants.3 The TIS Act expressly amended statutes contained in Titles 11 and 16 only, although many of the amended provisions, including those governing the accumulation of good time credits, had previously been applied to offenses contained in other titles by the interaction of the Code‟s provisions.4 Most relevant to this appeal, the TIS Act amended 11 Del. C. § 4205 to state, “[n]o sentence to Level V incarceration imposed pursuant to this Section is subject to parole.”5 Section 4205 is a backbone provision of Title 11 that sets forth certain minimum and maximum sentences for levels of felonies contained in judicial process”); Lewis F. Powell, Jr., Stare Decisis and Judicial Restraint, 47 WASH. & LEE L. REV. 281, 289-90 (1990) (“[I]nevitability of change touches law as it does every aspect of life. But stability and moderation are uniquely important to the law. . . . [R]estraint in decisionmaking and respect for decisions once made are the keys to preservation of an independent judiciary and public respect for the judiciary‟s role as a guardian of rights.”). 3 See 67 Del. Laws, ch. 130 [hereinafter “TIS Act”] § 1 (“The purposes of this Act are: To achieve truth in sentencing by assuring that the public, the State and the Court will know that the sentence imposed by the Court will be served by the defendant; and that, the defendant will know what the actual effect of the sentence will be. . . .”). 4 See, e.g., State v. Clyne, 2002 WL 1652149,  (Del. Super. July 22, 2002) (in calculating the amount of good time credit earned by the defendant, who was imprisoned for a felony DUI offense under Title 21, the Superior Court reasoned that because the TIS Act did not apply to DUI offenses, it was required to apply “old law,” i.e., the good time credit provisions contained in Title 11 before it was amended by the TIS Act. This suggests that these good time credit provisions had previously applied to crimes in Title 21.); cf. State v. Williams, 1975 WL 167882,  (Del. Super. Aug. 7, 1975) (noting that 11 Del. C. § 4201, which at the time stated that, “[a]ny offense defined outside this Criminal Code which is declared to be a felony without specification of the classification thereof shall be deemed a class E felony,” accordingly set the punishment for felonies defined without a classification in Title 21). 5 TIS Act § 6 (amending 11 Del. C. § 4205(j)). The TIS Act also added a new Section 4354 to Title 11, which states, “[n]o sentence imposed pursuant to the provisions of the Truth in Sentencing Act of 1989 shall be subject to parole under the provisions of this subchapter.” TIS Act § 7 (adding 11 Del. C. § 4354). 2 the Code.6 The TIS Act also stated that it took effect with respect to “all crimes” committed after June 30, 1989.7 When the TIS Act was enacted, DUIs were unclassified misdemeanor offenses contained in § 4177 of Title 21.8 In 1995, the General Assembly amended § 4177 to create felony DUI offenses. The maximum penalties for felony offenses were increased in 2009, and the minimum penalties for felony DUI offenses were increased in 2012. 9 Accordingly, persons imprisoned for DUI offenses today are serving longer sentences than those who were incarcerated when the TIS Act was enacted.