STAND. COM. REP. NO. 2177

Honolulu, Hawaii

RE:    S.B. No. 2304

       S.D. 1

Honorable Shan S. Tsutsui

President of the Senate

Twenty-Sixth State Legislature

Regular Session of 2012

State of Hawaii

Sir:

     Your Committee on Judiciary and Labor, to which was referred S.B. No. 2304 entitled:

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO RIGHTS OF THE ACCUSED,"

begs leave to report as follows:

     The purpose and intent of this measure is to require state and county law enforcement agencies to adopt uniform procedures for conducting live lineups and photo lineups for eyewitness identification in an effort to improve the State's criminal justice system.

     Your Committee received testimony in support of this measure from the Office of the Public Defender; the Community Alliance on Prisons; the American Civil Liberties Union of Hawaii; the Innocence Project; and one private individual.  Testimony in opposition to this measure was submitted by the Department of the Prosecuting Attorney of the City and County of Honolulu and the Maui Police Department.

     Your Committee finds that the most common causes of wrongful conviction are mistaken eyewitness identification and false confessions.  This measure is an effort to improve the State's eyewitness identification procedures by adopting uniform standards that are designed to reduce erroneous identifications.  However, the Department of the Prosecuting Attorney of the City and County of Honolulu raised a number of concerns regarding this measure.  The Department indicated that existing law requires that eyewitness identifications be reviewed under "totality of the circumstances" because there are many case-specific factors that need to be taken into account; thus, adopting uniform standards for eyewitness identifications may be overly restrictive and unnecessary.

     Your Committee notes these concerns and encourages the City and County of Honolulu Prosecuting Attorney to work on streamlining the language in this measure as it moves through the legislative process.

     Your Committee has amended this measure by:

     (1)  Inserting an effective date of July 1, 2050, to ensure further discussion; and

     (2)  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 is in accord with the intent and purpose of S.B. No. 2304, as amended herein, and recommends that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as S.B. No. 2304, S.D. 1, and be referred to the Committee on Ways and Means.

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

____________________________

CLAYTON HEE, Chair