STAND. COM. REP. NO. 135

 

Honolulu, Hawaii

                  

 

RE:    S.B. No. 838

 

 

 

Honorable Colleen Hanabusa

President of the Senate

Twenty-Fifth State Legislature

Regular Session of 2009

State of Hawaii

 

Madam:

 

     Your Committee on Human Services, to which was referred S.B. No. 838 entitled:

 

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO THE PENAL CODE,"

 

begs leave to report as follows:

 

     The purpose of this measure is to provide greater protection to victims of domestic violence who the courts and police are attempting to keep safe through protective orders and police orders.

 

     Specifically, the measure:

 

(1)  Amends the offense of murder in the first degree to include the killing of a protected person;

 

(2)  Amends the offense of murder in the second degree to include recklessly causing the death of a protected person;

 

(3)  Amends the offense of assault in the second degree to include the intentional, knowing, or reckless causing of bodily injury to a protected person; and

 

(4)  Amends the offense of terroristic threatening in the first degree to include the threatening of a protective person.

 

     Testimony in support of this measure was submitted by the Attorney General; the Department of the Prosecuting Attorney, County of Maui; the Police Department, County of Maui; the Police Department, City and County of Honolulu; the Department of the Prosecuting Attorney, City and County of Honolulu; and the Hawaii State Coalition Against Domestic Violence.  The State Office of the Public Defender submitted testimony in opposition to the measure.  Copies of written testimony are available for review on the Legislature's website.

 

     Your Committee finds that domestic violence is widespread in Hawaii.  The State has attempted to address the problem by offering protective orders to domestic violence victims.  However, despite the issuance of such protective orders, some victims continue to be harassed, intimidated, and in some cases, killed, by their abusers.  This measure seeks to provide greater protection and support to victims of domestic violence who have sought assistance from the courts and the police by, among other things, upgrading the respective grades of offenses applicable to these circumstances, as follows:

 

     (1)  Upgrading manslaughter to murder in the second degree;

 

     (2)  Upgrading terroristic threatening in the second degree, a misdemeanor, to the class C felony of terroristic threatening in the first degree; and

 

     (3)  Upgrading assault in the third degree, a misdemeanor, to the class C felony of assault in the second degree,

 

when these crimes are committed against protected victims.

 

     As affirmed by the record of votes of the members of your Committee on Human Services that is attached to this report, your Committee is in accord with the intent and purpose of S.B. No. 838 and recommends that it pass Second Reading and be referred to the Committee on Judiciary and Government Operations.

 

Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committee on Human Services,

 

		____________________________ SUZANNE CHUN OAKLAND, Chair