Bill Text: HI HB1772 | 2012 | Regular Session | Amended

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Bill Title: Violation of Privacy; Prosecuting Attorney Package

Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Democrat 1-0)

Status: (Passed) 2012-04-25 - (S) Act 059, 4/24/2012 (Gov. Msg. No. 1160). [HB1772 Detail]

Download: Hawaii-2012-HB1772-Amended.html

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STAND. COM. REP. NO. 3199

 

Honolulu, Hawaii

                  

 

RE:    H.B. No. 1772

 

 

 

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 H.B. No. 1772 entitled:

 

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO VIOLATION OF PRIVACY,"

 

begs leave to report as follows:

 

     The purpose and intent of this measure is to exclude from the offense of violation of privacy in the second degree the commission of certain acts to observe, record, amplify, or broadcast another person in a stage of undress or sexual activity.

 

     Your Committee received testimony in support of this measure from the Honolulu Prosecuting Attorney and County of Maui Department of the Prosecuting Attorney.

 

     Your Committee finds that existing law regarding a violation of privacy in the second degree, a misdemeanor, as it pertains to a person in a stage of undress or sexual activity is also covered by the felony offense of violation of privacy in the first degree.  According to testimony submitted on this measure, case law requires that a violator be charged under the lesser charge in order to avoid constitutional due process and equal protection issues (State v. Modica, 58 Haw 249).  This measure resolves that conflict by excluding the behavior from the lesser second degree offense, thereby allowing violators to be charged under the felony offense.

 

     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 H.B. No. 1772, 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 and Labor,

 

		____________________________ CLAYTON HEE, Chair