STAND.
COM. REP. NO. 796
Honolulu, Hawaii
, 2025
RE: H.B. No. 145
H.D. 1
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. 145 entitled:
"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO EXPUNGEMENT,"
begs leave to report as follows:
Your Committee received testimony in support of this measure from the Department of the Attorney General; Office of the Public Defender; Community Alliance on Prisons; League of Women Voters of Hawaii; ACLU of Hawaiʻi; and two individuals. Your Committee received comments on this measure from the Judiciary.
Your Committee finds that Act 159, Session Laws of Hawaii 2023 (Act 159), mandates the automatic sealing or removal of arrest or case information from the Judiciary's publicly accessible databases for individuals with expungement orders, effective by July 1, 2025. However, your Committee finds that the court is currently unable to implement Act 159 because the Hawaii Criminal Justice Data Center lacks the legal authority to release the expungement orders to the Judiciary. This measure would enable the Criminal Justice Data Center and Judiciary to fulfill the mandate under Act 159.
Your Committee has amended this measure by:
(1) Clarifying that the expungement orders transmitted by the Criminal Justice Data Center to the Judiciary must have a court case number;
(2) Clarifying the circumstances under which the Judiciary must seal or otherwise remove judiciary files and other information pertaining to the applicable arrest or case of any person for whom an expungement order has been entered and transmitted to the court; and
(3) Making technical, nonsubstantive amendments for the purposes of clarity, consistency, and style.
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. 145, as amended herein, and recommends that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as H.B. No. 145, H.D. 1, 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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