The death penalty, the seizure of people's money by police and the reform of Delaware's bail system were among criminal justice-related bills debated in the General Assembly's final days.
Meanwhile, a banner effort to reform the state's probation system was quietly quit − at least for this year − by lawmakers without any vote during the waning days of the session.
The following is a quick rundown of some criminal justice initiatives that passed, failed or died on the vine in the final days of this year's legislative session.
How dead is Delaware's death penalty?
It's pretty dead, but that didn't stop it from being the subject of two different pieces of passionately debated legislation this year.
After 2016 rulings by the U.S. Supreme Court and Delaware's high court invalidated the state's death penalty process, Delaware has had no one on death row and no longer sentences people to death. But the penalty remains in both Delaware's criminal statutes and the state's constitution and legislators could amend the way Delaware implements the penalty to continue its use.
So abolitionists pushed two related bills this year: one to strike the penalty from the criminal code and another constitutional amendment to rid that document of the penalty.
They argue the crime needs to be struck from the lawbooks because Delaware has a long history of reviving its use of the penalty after court decisions though the decades have invalidated it. Republican legislators as recently as last year introduced legislation to revive the penalty.
The debate over the legislation also showed that there is still an appetite, primarily among Republican legislators, to resume the state's practice of killing people.
Previous reporting:Lawmakers repeal death penalty, while fate of constitutional amendment unclear
Ultimately, the bill stripping the penalty from the state's criminal codes passed both chambers.
However, the constitutional amendment bill was not raised for a vote by Democratic leaders in the House until the final day of the session on Sunday. Constitutional amendments require more affirmative votes to pass than statutory changes. So Democrats needed some Republican support in the House, which they did not get and the bill failed.
The statutory change lawmakers did approve now awaits Gov. John Carney's signature.
Democrats sit on banner probation reform effort:
No other criminal justice legislation received as much fanfare from progressive Democrats in the past year as a proposal to reform the state's probation system - a proposal that ultimately was not raised for a vote this legislative session.
Initially, Senate Bill 4 proposed sweeping reforms aimed to significantly reduce the number of people reincarcerated due to technical violations of their probation, violations like a missed curfew, and reduce the potential period of probation a person can face in Delaware.
But over the past year, the proposal has been steadily whittled down in response to pushback from law enforcement and corrections interests. The bill went through four iterations. The latest paired with separate legislation that would create a task force to further discuss probation reforms.
But both the latest iteration of the bill and the resolution creating a task force were never raised for a vote by Democratic leadership in the Senate.
Bail reform jumps first hoop:
Delaware lawmakers began the process of passing reforms setting out certain crimes for which a person can be held without bail. The effort is one that backers say is aimed at reducing the prominence of cash bail in Delaware's criminal justice system.
Such efforts have been around for years in Delaware. The latest effort to that requires a constitutional amendment and comes in the form of Senate Bill 11 and Senate Bill 12. Both bills passed this year, but because amendments to the state's constitution require passage in two consecutive years of the General Assembly, lawmakers must again pass the legislation next year.
Paying for wrongful convictions
Delaware now has a way of compensating those who are locked unjustly based on a faulty criminal conviction.
On the last day of session, lawmakers passed Senate Bill 169, which creates a program where such individuals can go through a court process evaluating their innocence and potentially receive recompense based on how long they were wrongfully imprisoned.
Prior reporting: Why Delaware is one of the few states that doesn't compensate wrongfully incarcerated
How police seize and keep money
Lawmakers also passed a reform to the mechanism police use to take possession of and spend what they claim are the financial proceeds of crimes.
House Bill 280 requires the state police authorities to meet a higher legal burden to seize and keep peoples' money, require there be a parallel criminal case against the person and allows that person to recover attorneys and other fees if they succeed in a court proceeding challenging the seizure.
Pressure from law enforcement interests saw the bill's reforms pared back, but it was ultimately sent to Gov. John Carney after passing the Senate in the final days of the session.
Fines, fees, lockup for back child support and a second step?
Lawmakers also continued to pass reforms to how Delaware uses fines and fees in its criminal justice system: Senate Bills 282, 283 and 284. Another related bill, House Bill 291, did get voted on.
Legislators also on the last day of session passed a law that requires a judge to determine whether a person is willfully not paying or financially unable to pay court-ordered child support before that judge can order the person to be locked up.
A year ago, Delaware lawmakers passed a significantly watered-down reform to Delaware's restrictive police transparency laws. At the time, top Democrats pushing the reforms called the compromise reform measure a "first step."
This year, no lawmakers introduced any further reforms to those police transparency laws.
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