Report Title:

Arrest; Decision to Charge or Release

Description:

Extends from 48 hours to 72 hours the time within which police must decide to charge arrested person and bring the person to court or to release the person. Excludes weekends and holidays for calculation of the 72 hour period.

HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

H.B. NO.

2537

TWENTY-THIRD LEGISLATURE, 2006

 

STATE OF HAWAII

 


 

A BILL FOR AN ACT

 

RELATING TO CHAPTER 803, HAWAII REVISED STATUTES.

 

BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF HAWAII:

SECTION 1. Section 803-9, Hawaii Revised Statutes, is amended to read as follows:

"§803-9 Examination after arrest; rights of arrested person. It shall be unlawful in any case of arrest for examination:

(1) To deny to the person so arrested the right of seeing, at reasonable intervals and for a reasonable time at the place of the person's detention, counsel or a member of the arrested person's family;

(2) To unreasonably refuse or fail to make a reasonable effort, where the arrested person so requests and prepays the cost of the message, to send a telephone, cable, or wireless message through a police officer or another than the arrested person to the counsel or member of the arrested person's family;

(3) To deny to counsel (whether retained by the arrested person or a member of the arrested person's family) or to a member of the arrested person's family the right to see or otherwise communicate with the arrested person at the place of the arrested person's detention (A) at any time for a reasonable period for the first time after the arrest, and (B) thereafter at reasonable intervals and for a reasonable time;

(4) In case the person arrested has requested that the person see an attorney or member of the person's family, to examine the person before the person has had a fair opportunity to see and consult with the attorney or member of the person's family;

(5) To fail within [forty-eight] seventy-two hours of the arrest of a person on suspicion of having committed a crime either to release or to charge the arrested person with a crime and take the arrested person before a qualified magistrate for examination[.]; provided that calculation of the seventy-two hours shall not include weekends and holidays."

SECTION 2. This Act does not affect rights and duties that matured, penalties that were incurred, and proceedings that were begun, before its effective date.

SECTION 3. Statutory material to be repealed is bracketed and stricken. New statutory material is underscored.

SECTION 4. This Act shall take effect upon its approval.

INTRODUCED BY:

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