STAND. COM. REP. NO. 725

Honolulu, Hawaii

, 2025

RE: H.B. No. 610

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. 610 entitled:

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO COLD CASE INVESTIGATIONS,"

begs leave to report as follows:

The purpose of this measure is to establish and appropriate funds for a Cold Case Investigation Unit within the Department of the Attorney General to assist federal, state, county, and tribal law enforcement, and other cold case units, in investigating unsolved homicide, missing person, and other cases that have a nexus to the State.

Your Committee received testimony in support of this measure from the Department of the Attorney General; Office of Hawaiian Affairs; and one individual.

Your Committee finds that the State has hundreds of unsolved murders, including some cases more than forty years old. According to the nonprofit organization Project: Cold Case, the State reported 2,182 homicides between 1965 and 2023, and 728 of those cases remain unsolved. Your Committee further finds that, while each county in Hawaii has a cold case unit, additional resources and personnel may be needed to assist with the investigation of decades-old crimes. Coordination of efforts and sharing of information among federal, state, county, tribal, and other agencies is also valuable in resolving unsolved cases. Your Committee believes that the establishment of a Cold Case Investigation Unit will provide the necessary resources, personnel, and coordination between agencies to help bring closure to many of the State's unsolved crimes.

Your Committee has amended this measure by:

(1) Deleting language which would have:

(A) Required the Cold Case Investigation Unit to prioritize unsolved cases involving an Indigenous victim; and

(B) Prohibited the Cold Case Investigation Unit from assisting with an active criminal investigation;

(2) Adding a definition of "cold case";

(3) Changing the effective date to July 1, 3000, to encourage further discussion; and

(4) 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. 610, as amended herein, and recommends that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as H.B. No. 610, H.D. 1, and be referred to your Committee on Finance.

Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committee on Judiciary & Hawaiian Affairs,

____________________________

DAVID A. TARNAS, Chair