STAND

STAND. COM. REP. 1315

Honolulu, Hawaii

, 2003

RE: S.B. No. 933

S.D. 1

H.D. 1

Honorable Calvin K.Y. Say

Speaker, House of Representatives

Twenty-Second State Legislature

Regular Session of 2003

State of Hawaii

Sir:

Your Committee on Judiciary, to which was referred S.B. No. 933, S.D. 1, entitled:

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO STALKING,"

begs leave to report as follows:

The purpose of the bill is to:

(1) Amend the offense of harassment by stalking by requiring more than one occurrence of a course of conduct that is without legitimate purpose;

(2) Repeal the distinction that a single occurrence of a prohibited conduct is a petty misdemeanor;

(3) Delete the requirement of violations of court orders for the offense of aggravated harassment by stalking; and

(4) Amend the offense of aggravated harassment by stalking to require two occurrences of misdemeanor stalking within ten years.

The Department of the Prosecuting Attorney for the City and County of Honolulu, the Department of the Prosecuting Attorney for the county of Maui, the Honolulu Police Department, the Domestic Violence Clearinghouse and Legal Hotline, Women Helping Women, Hawaii Family Forum, Hawaii State Coalition Against Domestic Violence and a concerned individual testified in support of this bill. The Office of the Public Defender opposed the measure.

Your Committee finds that this measure will strengthen the laws against stalking.

Your Committee has amended this bill by:

(1) Making the offense of aggravated harassment require two offenses of harassment to occur within a five year period;

(2) Deleting from the definition of "non-consensual contact" the element of direct personal contact; and

(3) Making technical, nonsubstantive amendments for consistency.

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. 933, S.D. 1, as amended herein, and recommends that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as S.B. No. 933, S.D. 1, H.D. 1, and be placed on the calendar for Third Reading.

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

		____________________________ ERIC G. HAMAKAWA, Chair