STAND. COM. REP. 535

Honolulu, Hawaii

, 2003

RE: H.B. No. 1112

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 H.B. No. 1112 entitled:

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO CHAPTER 846E, HAWAII REVISED STATUTES,"

begs leave to report as follows:

The purpose of this bill is to:

(1) Provide that the hearings relating to the release of sex offender information are civil proceedings and that the State is represented by the prosecuting attorney for the county in which the hearing is held;

(2) Repeal the process for reevaluating court orders granting public access to information regarding a sex offender;

(3) Add a new definition for "registration information" in relation to sex offender registration; and

(4) Require sex offenders to give notification when any of the registration information changes.

 

The Department of the Attorney General and the Office of the Prosecuting Attorney for the City and County of Honolulu testified in support of this measure. The Office of the Public Defender provided comments.

Your Committee finds that:

(1) The proceedings to determine release of relevant information on sex offenders encroach on protections afforded criminal defendants; therefore, the proceedings should be maintained as criminal proceedings;

(2) The fact that the sex offender caused death or serious bodily injury to another should be cause for allowing release of relevant information for life; and

(3) The ten-year review process of the release of relevant information on sex offenders should be maintained to afford meaningful review of defendants' circumstances. However, the ten-year period should exclude any time defendants are incarcerated.

Your Committee has amended this bill by:

(1) Maintaining the proceedings to determine release of relevant information on sex offenders as criminal proceedings;

(2) Adding death or serious bodily injury as a factor in determining lifetime public release of relevant information;

(3) Maintaining the ten-year review process; however, requiring that the ten-year period shall consist of time outside of correctional confinement; and

(4) Making technical, nonsubstantive changes for style and clarity.

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. 1112, as amended herein, and recommends that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as H.B. No. 1112, H.D. 1, and be referred to the Committee on Finance.

 

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

 

____________________________

ERIC G. HAMAKAWA, Chair