STAND. COM. REP. NO. 495

Honolulu, Hawaii

RE:    S.B. No. 1346

Honorable Colleen Hanabusa

President of the Senate

Twenty-Fourth State Legislature

Regular Session of 2007

State of Hawaii

Madam:

     Your Committee on Health, to which was referred S.B. No. 1346 entitled:

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO SENTENCING,"

begs leave to report as follows:

     The purpose of this measure is to restore the statutory provision allowing pre-sentence mental or medical examinations of defendants for the purposes of sentencing. 

     Your Committee received testimony in support of this measure from the Department of the Attorney General and the Department of the Prosecuting Attorney for the City and County of Honolulu.

     Your Committee finds that the intent of this measure is to restore language that was previously codified in section 706-603, Hawaii Revised Statutes, authorizing a court to order pre-sentence mental or medical examinations of defendants.  This authorization was inadvertently repealed by Act 112, Session Laws of Hawaii 2005, and should be restored.

     As affirmed by the record of votes of the members of your Committee on Health that is attached to this report, your Committee is in accord with the intent and purpose of S.B. No. 1346 and recommends that it pass Second Reading and be referred to the Committee on Judiciary and Labor.

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

____________________________

DAVID Y. IGE, Chair