STAND. COM. REP. NO.  649

 

Honolulu, Hawaii

                , 2007

 

RE:   H.B. No. 1260

 

 

 

 

Honorable Calvin K.Y. Say

Speaker, House of Representatives

Twenty-Fourth State Legislature

Regular Session of 2007

State of Hawaii

 

Sir:

 

     Your Committee on Health, to which was referred H.B. No. 1260 entitled:

 

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO SENTENCING,"

 

begs leave to report as follows:

 

     The purpose of this measure is to restore the court's authority to order a mental or medical examination of a defendant pending sentencing.

 

     Your Committee received testimony in support of this measure from the Attorney General and the Prosecuting Attorney for the City and County of Honolulu.

 

     Your Committee notes that the authority for presentence mental or medical examinations, originally established in 1972, was inadvertently repealed when section 706-603, Hawaii Revised Statutes, was amended in 2005 as part of legislation that enacted a comprehensive forensic DNA identification statute.

 

     By restoring the authority for presentence mental or medical examinations, this measure allows the court to better evaluate certain defendants to determine the most appropriate sentence.

 

     As affirmed by the record of votes of the members of your Committee on Health that is attached to this report, your Committee is in accord with the intent and purpose of H.B. No. 1260 and recommends that it pass Second Reading and be referred to the Committee on Judiciary.

 

 

Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committee on Health,

 

 

 

 

____________________________

JOSHUA B. GREEN, M.D., Chair