Report Title:

Elected Officials; Disqualification Upon Conviction

Description:

Provides that if an elected official is convicted of a crime that disqualifies that person from office, the date by which they shall step down is the date of conviction, not date of sentencing.

HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

H.B. NO.

2841

TWENTY-FIRST LEGISLATURE, 2002

 

STATE OF HAWAII

 


 

A BILL FOR AN ACT

 

relating to elected officials.

 

BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF HAWAII:

SECTION 1. Findings and purpose. The legislature finds that the public trust in elected officials has been shaken by recent criminal convictions of public officers. In particular, elected officials have been allowed to continue to hold public office, attend official meetings, and even vote at these meetings after being convicted of crimes that disqualify them from office. The laws have been interpreted to apply removal of convicted officials only after the imposition of sentence for the conviction and not upon conviction itself. The purpose of this Act is to make it clear and unequivocal that upon the date of conviction by the trier of fact, the elected officials shall be removed from office and not allowed to act in any official capacity.

SECTION 2. Section 19-4, Hawaii Revised Statutes, is amended to read as follows:

"§19-4 Penalties; disqualification for, removal from office; reports of convictions to chief election officer. Every person found guilty of an election fraud shall be fined not less than $100 nor more than $1,000, or imprisoned at hard labor not more than two years, or both. Besides the punishment, the person shall be disqualified from voting and from being elected to, holding or occupying any office, elective or appointive. If the person so convicted holds any office, either elective or appointive, at the time of the conviction, the office shall at once and without mention in the sentence or other proceeding be vacated by the conviction. The judge before whom the conviction is had shall immediately transmit to the chief election officer and to the respective county clerks the name of the person, the offense of which the person has been convicted and the sentence of the court.

For purposes of this section the "time of conviction" means the day upon which the person was found guilty of the charges by the trier of fact."

SECTION 3. Section 831-2, Hawaii Revised Statutes, is amended by amending subsection (b) to read as follows:

"(b) A public office held at the time of [sentence] conviction is forfeited as of the date of the [sentence] conviction if the [sentence] conviction is in this State, or, if the [sentence] conviction is in another state or in a federal court, as of the date a certification of the [sentence] conviction from the [sentencing] trial court is filed in the office of the lieutenant governor who shall receive and file it as a public document. An appeal or other proceeding taken to set aside or otherwise nullify the conviction or sentence does not affect the application of this section, but if the conviction is reversed the defendant shall be restored to any public office forfeited under this chapter from the time of the reversal and shall be entitled to the emoluments thereof from the time of the forfeiture.

For purposes of this section the "time of conviction" means the day upon which the person was found guilty of the charges by the trier of fact."

SECTION 4. Statutory material to be repealed is bracketed and stricken. New statutory material is underscored.

SECTION 5. This Act shall take effect upon its approval.

INTRODUCED BY:

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