Honorable Robert Bunda

President of the Senate

Twenty-Second State Legislature

Regular Session of 2004

State of Hawaii

Sir:

Your Committee on Judiciary and Hawaiian Affairs, to which was referred H.C.R. No. 267, H.D. 1, entitled:

begs leave to report as follows:

The purpose of this measure is to request the Attorney General to report to the Legislature on progress made by the Attorney General and the Prosecuting Attorneys from the counties of the State of Hawaii in using Chapter 846E, Hawaii Revised Statutes (HRS), to restore public access to sex offender registration information.

Your Committee finds that in 1996, the federal government enacted "Megan's Law," requiring states to collect and release relevant information necessary to protect the public from sexual offenders. In 1997, Hawaii passed its own version of "Megan's Law," chapter 846E, HRS, entitled "Sex Offender Registration and Notification," which requires individuals convicted of certain offenses against children and certain sexual offenses to register with a sex-offender registry by providing information relating to their identity, residence, employment, education, medical treatment, and vehicle.

However, in 2001, the Hawaii State Supreme Court in State v. Bani, 97 Haw. 285, struck down the public-notification component of Hawaii's Megan's Law as a violation of the defendant's due process rights because the "State must allow a registered sex offender a meaningful opportunity to argue that he or she does not represent a threat to the community and that public notification is not necessary, or that he or she represents only a limited threat such that limited public notification is appropriate." Since the Bani decision, Hawaii's internet public sex-offender registry was shut down.

Although attempts were made to revise chapter 846E, Hawaii's Megan's Law remains dormant, and there appears to be no evidence that a single hearing has been completed under the current statute. Your Committee believes that the people of the State of Hawaii deserve to have immediate efforts made to revive the internet sex-offender registry using the legal procedure currently available under Hawaii's Megan's Law.

As affirmed by the record of votes of the members of your Committee on Judiciary and Hawaiian Affairs that is attached to this report, your Committee concurs with the intent and purpose of H.C.R. No. 267, H.D. 1, and recommends its adoption.