Honorable Robert Bunda

President of the Senate

Twenty-First State Legislature

Regular Session of 2002

State of Hawaii

Sir:

Your Committee on Judiciary, to which was referred H.B. No. 2387, H.D. 1, entitled:

begs leave to report as follows:

The purpose of this measure is to change the penalty for the offense of desecration.

Testimony in support of this measure was received from the Oahu Island Burial Council. The Public Defender submitted testimony in opposition.

This measure changes the current penalty of a misdemeanor to one year imprisonment and a fine of $5,000.

Your Committee heard graphic testimony of acts of vandalizing graves, including theft of bronze vases used to hold flowers. Current law prohibits desecration, which apparently does not serve as a sufficient deterrent. Therefore, the only recourse is to increase the penalty for desecration.

Your Committee has amended this measure by increasing the fine to $10,000, to be consistent with the penalty provided in section 6E-11(c), Hawaii Revised Statutes, relating to destruction of historic property. Your Committee believes that a burial place or grave deserves no less a penalty for damage than does a historical monument.

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 H.B. No. 2387, H.D. 1, as amended herein, and recommends that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as H.B. No. 2387, H.D. 1, S.D. 1, and be placed on the calendar for Third Reading.