IN THE SUPERIOR COURT OF THE STATE OF DELAWARE
STATE OF DELAWARE,
I.D. No. 1602007591
IMEIR MURRAY,
Defendant.
Submitted: October 25, 2016
Decided: January 11, 2017
Opinion Issued: April 13, 2017
Corrected: Apri127, 2017
OPINION
Upon Defendant Imeir Murray ’s Motion to Dismiss,
DENIED.
Cynthia F. Hurlock, Deputy Attorney General, Department of JuStice, Wilmington,
Delaware, Attorney for the State of Delaware.
Colleen E. Durkin, Esquire, and Matthew C. Buckworth, Esquire, Collins &
Associates, Wilmington, Delaware, Attorneys for Defendant Imeir Murray.
WALLACE, J.
I. INTRODUCTION
Just over a year ago, Delaware decriminalized the act of possessing a small
quantity of marijuana for personal use. This motion, brought by a criminal
defendant arrested shortly after that enactment, brings to the fore some
undereXamined (or, more likely, some wholly unanticipated) consequences of that
change.
II. STATUTORY BACKGROUND:
DELAWARE’s FAsT-CHANGING DRUG LAwsl
In 2011, at the urging of the Drug Law Revisions Committee, Delaware
repealed significant portions of its extant criminal drug code and replaced it with
laws creating three main drug crimes.2 The least serious drug offenses - those
prohibiting simple possession of controlled substances were: (l) re-written;
(2) enumerated as Sections 4763 and 4764 of Title 16; (3) placed within the
original jurisdiction of the Court of Common Pleas; and, (4) assigned the lowest
criminal penalties.3
l For simplicity’s sake, the statutory history recounted here and referenced throughout this
Opinion will speak only to the changes made and the present statutory language applicable to
adults who violate Delaware’s marijuana and firearms laws.
2 See Del. H.B 19 syn., 146th Gen. Assem., 78 Del. Laws ch. 13 (2011).
3 See id. (noting the new drug laws classified “the simplest form of unlawful [drug]
possession” _ i.e., those defined in the new 16 Del. C. §§ 4763(a) & 4764(b) _ as Delaware’s
lowest grade misdemeanors); ia’. at § 58 (stating simple possession of any controlled substance
other than marijuana became a class B misdemeanor); id. at § 61 (stating simple possession of
marijuana became an unclassified misdemeanor).
_2_
That same 2011 Act also introduced a new felony to the Delaware Criminal
Code. That crime defined a brand-new set of persons prohibited from possessing
or controlling certain weapons:
Any person, if the deadly weapon is a semi-automatic or
automatic firearm, or a handgun, who, at the same time,
possesses a controlled substance in violation of § 4763,
01~ § 4764 OrTirle 16.4
As the rather simple language manifests, this statute created this new low-grade
felony “for a person who possesses a handgun or semi-automatic or automatic
firearm at the same time as the person possesses a controlled substance.”5
Four years later, Delaware reduced the penalties for simple possession of
marijuana even further. The provisions outlawing the illicit possession of
marijuana were: (1) again re-written; (2) still enumerated as Section 4764 of Title
16; (3) conferred split original jurisdiction between the Court of Common Pleas
and the Justice of the Peace Court; and, (4) assigned the lowest criminal
misdemeanor and civil violation status.6 As applicable to this case, the law now
4 Ia’. at § 5 (codified at ll Del. C. § 1448(a)(9) (2011) [hereinafter “PFBPP”]).
5 Ia'. at syn.
6 See Del. H.B. 39 syn., 148th Gen. Assem., 80 Del. Laws ch. 38 (2015); id. at § 2
(creating new civil violation for possession of less than an ounce of marijuana for personal use
and leaving that offense within § 4764 of Title 16); id. at § 5 (conferring original jurisdiction
over criminal marijuana possession offense to the Court of Common Pleas and original
jurisdiction over civil marijuana possession violation to the Justice of the Peace Court).
_3_
provides:
Any person 18 years of age or older, but under 21 years
of age, who [l
Paul R. Wallace, Judge
_17_