STAND. COM. REP. NO. 1300

Honolulu, Hawaii

RE:    S.C.R. No. 149

       S.D. 2

Honorable Shan S. Tsutsui

President of the Senate

Twenty-Sixth State Legislature

Regular Session of 2011

State of Hawaii

Sir:

     Your Committee on Judiciary and Labor, to which was referred S.C.R. No. 149, S.D. 1, entitled:

"SENATE CONCURRENT RESOLUTION ENCOURAGING THE STATE ATTORNEY GENERAL AND STATE AND COUNTY LAW ENFORCEMENT AGENCIES TO ADOPT NEW EYEWITNESS IDENTIFICATION PROCEDURES TO DECREASE THE RATE OF ERRONEOUS EYEWITNESS IDENTIFICATIONS AND TO CONDUCT CRIMINAL INVESTIGATIONS IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE NEWEST AND BEST PRACTICES AVAILABLE FOR EYEWITNESS IDENTIFICATIONS,"

begs leave to report as follows:

     The purpose and intent of this measure is to:

     (1)  Encourage the Attorney General and various state and county law enforcement officers to adopt new eyewitness identification procedures recommended by the National Institute of Justice to decrease the rate of erroneous eyewitness identifications; and

     (2)  Recommend that criminal investigations conducted by state and county law enforcement agencies be in accordance with the newest and best practices available for eyewitness identification.

     Your Committee received testimony in support of this measure from the Hawai‘i Innocence Project and the Eyewitness Identification Reform Litigation Network, American Civil Liberties Union of Hawai‘i, The Drug Policy Forum of Hawai‘i, Community Alliance on Prisons, and three individuals.  Your Committee received comments on this measure from the Department of the Attorney General.

     Your Committee finds that while the goal of police investigation in Hawaii is to apprehend the person or persons responsible for committing crime, traditional eyewitness identification procedures may lead to faulty eyewitness identifications.  This is problematic because jurors treat a confident eyewitness identification as compelling evidence in civil and criminal trials, even if the identification is impeached based on other factors such as poor visibility or bias.  One of the primary reasons that eyewitnesses to crimes have been shown to make mistakes in their recollection of perpetrator identities is the law enforcement procedures used to collect eyewitness evidence.  Your Committee finds that by adopting eyewitness identification procedures that are readily available, are easy to implement, and provide more accurate results, the possibility of convicting an innocent person while allowing the true perpetrator to go free may be reduced.

     Your Committee notes that the Department of the Attorney General indicated that the Department's Investigations Division already uses many of these procedures, as does the Honolulu Police Department.

     Your Committee has amended this measure by making technical, nonsubstantive amendments for the purposes of clarity and consistency.

     As affirmed by the record of votes of the members of your Committee on Judiciary and Labor that is attached to this report, your Committee concurs with the intent and purpose of S.C.R. No. 149, S.D. 1, as amended herein, and recommends its adoption in the form attached hereto as S.C.R. No. 149, S.D. 2.

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

____________________________

CLAYTON HEE, Chair