Honorable Robert Bunda

President of the Senate

Twenty-First State Legislature

Regular Session of 2001

State of Hawaii

Sir:

Your Committee on Judiciary, to which was referred S.B. No. 1508 entitled:

begs leave to report as follows:

The purpose of this measure is to amend the definition of "substantial bodily injury" in the penal code by deleting the requirement that qualifying second degree burns be caused by chemical, electrical, friction, or scalding means, and to include all concussions regardless of severity.

Your Committee received testimony in support of this measure from the Prosecuting Attorney of the City and County of Honolulu. The Office of the Public Defender submitted testimony opposing the provisions of this measure relating to concussions, as discussed below.

Your Committee finds that the definitions of many crimes include a requirement of "substantial bodily injury," and that defining that term too restrictively excludes from successful prosecution many otherwise criminal actions. Your Committee supports the categorization of every second degree burn, regardless of origin, as a "substantial bodily injury."

Based on the testimony of the Office of the Public Defender, your Committee amended this measure to reinstate the requirement that a concussion be "serious" in order to qualify as a "substantial bodily injury."

Your Committee finds that deleting the word "serious" will dilute the distinction between assaults in the second and third degrees. Your Committee agrees that the more serious crime of assault in the second degree, which includes a requirement of "substantial bodily injury," should be reserved for situations where the blow to a person's head is more severe and results in a "serious" concussion.

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. 1508, as amended herein, and recommends that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as S.B. No. 1508, S.D. 1, and be placed on the calendar for Third Reading.