STAND.
COM. REP. NO. 807
Honolulu, Hawaii
, 2025
RE: H.B. No. 103
Honorable Nadine K. Nakamura
Speaker, House of Representatives
Thirty-Third State Legislature
Regular Session of 2025
State of Hawaii
Madame:
Your Committee on Judiciary & Hawaiian Affairs, to which was referred H.B. No. 103 entitled:
"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO SENTENCING,"
begs leave to report as follows:
Your Committee received testimony in support of this measure from the Office of the Public Defender and Opportunity for Youth Action Hawaiʻi Kawailoa. Your Committee received testimony in opposition to this measure from the Department of the Prosecuting Attorney of the City and County of Honolulu and one individual.
Your Committee finds that juveniles are psychologically and developmentally different from adults and these differences should be recognized by the legal system. Juveniles are extremely vulnerable to negative environments and are easily influenced by crime-producing influences, such as physical, sexual, and psychological abuse by family members, other adults, and older juveniles. Juveniles are less capable than adults to consider the long-term impact of their actions, control their emotions and impulses, or evaluate risks and reward. Juveniles do not have control over their living situations and may experience traumas related to family homelessness, abandonment, exposure to adult drug abuse, and the realities of living in poverty that create environments susceptible to gang involvement or exposure to adult criminal behaviors. This measure raises the age to twenty-one years of age or older for which individuals are eligible for life without parole sentences.
As affirmed by the record of votes of the members of your Committee on Judiciary & Hawaiian Affairs that is attached to this report, your Committee is in accord with the intent and purpose of H.B. No. 103 and recommends that it pass Second Reading and be placed on the calendar for Third Reading.
Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committee on Judiciary & Hawaiian Affairs,
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____________________________ DAVID A. TARNAS, Chair |
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