STAND. COM. REP. NO. 979

Honolulu, Hawaii

, 2005

RE: S.B. No. 470

S.D. 2

 

 

Honorable Robert Bunda

President of the Senate

Twenty-Third State Legislature

Regular Session of 2005

State of Hawaii

Sir:

Your Committee on Ways and Means, to which was referred S.B. No. 470, S.D. 1, entitled:

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO THE COLLECTION OF DEOXYRIBONUCLEIC ACID FOR THE DNA REGISTRY,"

begs leave to report as follows:

The purpose of this measure is to establish a statewide DNA database and databank identification program that will include the DNA of all convicted felons and be administered by the Honolulu Police Department.

Specifically, the bill:

(1) Allocates responsibility for the collection, analysis, and storage of blood specimens, buccal swab samples, and fingerprint impressions;

(2) Specifies which offenders must provide blood specimens, buccal swab samples, and fingerprint impressions, when they must be submitted, and penalties for failure to do so;

(3) Establishes procedures for the collection and analysis of blood specimens, buccal swab samples, and fingerprint impressions from convicted felons and for the analysis and comparison of crime scene biological evidence;

(4) Specifies procedures for the destruction of samples and the expungement of information from the DNA database;

(5) Imposes requirement of confidentiality of information and specifies penalties for violation thereof;

(6) Authorizes a court to order postconviction DNA testing and to take appropriate action thereafter according to the results;

(7) Extends by ten years the statute of limitations in any felony case in which DNA evidence is recovered and tested prior to expiration of the standard limitation period for the class of felony;

(8) Imposes an additional penalty of $1 for every $10 of any fine or penalty imposed and collected by the court for all criminal and traffic offenses, excluding parking, to help fund the DNA database and databank identification program; and

(9) Appropriates funds to carry out the purposes of this measure, including reimbursement to the county police departments and the Department of Public Safety for costs incurred in implementing it.

Your Committee finds that mandating DNA testing for all convicted felons is an effective law enforcement tool that, when used in conjunction with a DNA database, will enable the State to collect and maintain profiles of convicted offenders for use in ongoing as well as "cold case" investigations. This measure will also facilitate the use of DNA to exclude innocent persons and to provide post-conviction relief to the wrongly convicted.

Your Committee has amended this measure by:

(1) Deleting references to the Office of Youth Services and "adjudication" because the bill does not provide for the collection of DNA samples from juveniles;

(2) Deleting all references to an "insanity" verdict because, as provided in chapter 704, Hawaii Revised Statutes, the correct reference is to "mental disease, disorder, or defect";

(3) Deleting the reference in the title of the proposed section    -41, Hawaii Revised Statutes, to sex registrants and out-of-state transferees because the section does not relate to these individuals and because collection of samples from these individuals is addressed by proposed sections    -31(b) and    -38, Hawaii Revised Statutes;

(4) Amending the language proposing to extend the statute of limitations by adding limiting factors that the DNA evidence recovered have come from the offender and that the identity of the offender is not otherwise known;

(5) Changing the appropriations to unspecified amounts; and

(6) Making technical nonsubstantive changes for the purposes of clarity, consistency, and style.

As affirmed by the record of votes of the members of your Committee on Ways and Means that is attached to this report, your Committee is in accord with the intent and purpose of S.B. No. 470, S.D. 1, as amended herein, and recommends that it pass Third Reading in the form attached hereto as S.B. No. 470, S.D. 2.

Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committee on Ways and Means,

____________________________

BRIAN T. TANIGUCHI, Chair