STAND. COM. REP. NO. 2081

                                   Honolulu, Hawaii
                                                     , 2000

                                   RE:  S.B. No. 2429
                                        S.D. 1




Honorable Norman Mizuguchi
President of the Senate
Twentieth State Legislature
Regular Session of 2000
State of Hawaii

Sir:

     Your Committee on Judiciary, to which was referred S.B. No.
2429 entitled: 

     "A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO CRIME,"

begs leave to report as follows:

     The purpose of this bill is to allow extended term
sentencing for criminal offenders who intentionally select their
victims because of hostility to their race, color, religion,
ancestry, national origin, gender, transgender, sexual
orientation, age, or disability; and to provide a reporting
mechanism to compile, track, and analyze hate crimes data.

     Your Committee finds that crimes, especially those involving
violent acts, which are based upon threats against persons
because they belong to a certain classification or distinction,
are a perennial problem that shock communities across the nation.
Your Committee notes that Hawaii is one of only four states that
does not track hate crime data for collection by the Federal
Bureau of Investigation.  Your Committee believes that hate-
motivated crimes, which combine a seeming randomness -- victims
are generally strangers to the perpetrator -- with a very direct
animus toward a group to which the victim belongs, should subject
their perpetrators to extended term sentencing.  Your Committee
notes that extended term sentencing is already applied to many
categories of offenders whose crimes, for one reason or another,
pose a particular threat to the community.


 
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     Testimony in support of this bill was submitted by the
Attorney General, the Hawaii Civil Rights Commission, the Hawaii
State Commission on the Status of Women, the Honolulu Police
Department, and the American Friends Service Committee.
Testimony commenting on the measure was submitted by the Office
of the Public Defender.  Testimony in opposition to this bill was
submitted by the Christian Voice of Hawaii.

     Upon further consideration, your Committee has amended this
measure by:

     (1)  Correcting statements in the purpose section of the
          bill regarding state participation in the federal hate
          crimes reporting program;

     (2)  Amending the requirements for a crime to be considered
          a hate crime to conform the requirements given for
          extended term sentencing and reporting purposes, and to
          better reflect the bill's intent; and

     (3)  Making technical, non-substantive amendments for the
          purposes of clarity and style.

     As affirmed by the record of votes of the members of your
Committee on Judiciary that is attached to this report, your
Committee is in accord with the intent and purpose of S.B. No.
2429, as amended herein, and recommends that it pass Second
Reading in the form attached hereto as S.B. No. 2429, S.D. 1, and
be referred to the Committee on Ways and Means.

                                   Respectfully submitted on
                                   behalf of the members of the
                                   Committee on Judiciary,



                                   ______________________________
                                   AVERY B. CHUMBLEY, Co-Chair



                                   ______________________________
                                   MATTHEW M. MATSUNAGA, Co-Chair

 
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