Issue Position: Criminal Justice Reform

Issue Position

I support prison and sentencing reform, and I will continue to work to reform Delaware's justice system and allow for a reduction in recidivism and a return to society for many now incarcerated. I am proud to have sponsored several bills that would eliminate minimum mandatory sentencing for certain crimes, including the passage of a bill that removed minimum mandatory sentencing for individuals suffering from a serious medical illness who would receive a sentence of one year or less (HB 338). I co-sponsored a bill that established a juvenile offender civil citation program to prevent juveniles charged with certain misdemeanors from entering into the criminal system (HB 405, made permanent by HB 308). I also supported the expansion in the applicability of expungement for juvenile offenses (SB 54), sponsored an effort to allow adults who have made a mistake to have a second chance in life (HB 450), and I supported and co-sponsored the successful constitutional amendment to remove the five-year waiting period for eligible individuals who committed a felony to regain their voting rights (HB 10).

I co-sponsored one of the most significant overhauls of our criminal code dealing with drug offenses (HB 19), which included drastic reductions of minimum mandatory sentences for many drug crimes, paralleling federal law and recent changes in many other states. I have co-sponsored several bills that successfully established and expanded the medical marijuana program in Delaware (SB 17, SB 90, and HB 400). I was a sponsor of the bill that decriminalized the possession and private use of marijuana (HB 39), as well as a bill expanding probation before judgment for other marijuana offenses (HB 332). I was also a sponsor of last year's bill (HB 100) that would have regulated and taxed marijuana sales the same as alcohol.

John at ACLU press conferenceI sponsored a bill to repeal the death penalty (SB 40), and I do not support legislation to reinstate the death penalty. It is an ineffective, costly, and morally questionable response to the needs of vengeance rather than justice. For too long, the death penalty laws of this State and country have resulted in a disproportionate meting out of penalties that, on some occasions, have caused an innocent person to be executed. The laws have strayed from focusing on equal justice for all and become vehicles for vengeance. It is perfectly understandable that most people would want vengeance for despicable and heinous crimes committed against them and their loved ones, but I have grave misgivings about laws that should be ensuring justice that instead facilitate vengeance.

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