STAND. COM. REP. NO. 384

 

Honolulu, Hawaii

                  

 

RE:    S.B. No. 275

       S.D. 1

 

 

 

Honorable Donna Mercado Kim

President of the Senate

Twenty-Eighth State Legislature

Regular Session of 2015

State of Hawaii

 

Madam:

 

     Your Committees on Health, Public Safety, Intergovernmental and Military Affairs, and Judiciary and Labor, to which was referred S.B. No. 275 entitled:

 

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO SEXUAL ASSAULT,"

 

beg leave to report as follows:

 

     The purpose and intent of this measure is to establish and appropriate funds for the statewide sexual assault response system, sexual assault response teams in each county, and sexual assault victim examination protocols, including time frames pertaining to the collection, submittal, and analysis of forensic medical evidence.

 

     Your Committees received testimony in support of this measure from the Honolulu Police Department, American Association of University Women, Rainbow Family 808, and two individuals.  Your Committees received testimony in opposition to this measure from the Department of the Prosecuting Attorney, County of Maui.  Your Committees received comments on this measure from the Office of the Prosecuting Attorney, County of Hawaii.

 

     Your Committees find that health care personnel use a sexual assault evidence collection kit, commonly referred to as a rape kit, to collect and preserve physical evidence, including DNA, after an alleged sexual assault to help identify an assailant or eliminate a suspect.  Unlike Hawaii, twenty-seven states already have laws regarding sexual assault victims, forensic medical examinations, and the collection of forensic evidence using a rape kit.  Implementation of these laws vary from requiring training of medical staff conducting forensic medical examinations of sexual assault victims to establishing rape kit evidence collection and analysis timelines.

 

     Your Committees note that investigating sexual assault cases should be a top priority for all police departments throughout the State.

 

     Your Committees have amended this measure by making technical, nonsubstantive amendments for the purposes of clarity and consistency.

 

     As affirmed by the records of votes of the members of your Committees on Health, Public Safety, Intergovernmental and Military Affairs, and Judiciary and Labor that are attached to this report, your Committees are in accord with the intent and purpose of S.B. No. 275, as amended herein, and recommend that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as S.B. No. 275, S.D. 1, and be referred to the Committee on Ways and Means.

 

Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committees on Health, Public Safety, Intergovernmental and Military Affairs, and Judiciary and Labor,

 

____________________________

WILL ESPERO, Chair

 

____________________________

JOSH GREEN, Chair

 

 

________________________________

GILBERT S.C. KEITH-AGARAN, Chair