STAND. COM. REP. NO. 3363
Honolulu, Hawaii
RE: H.B. No. 1046
H.D. 2
S.D. 2
Honorable Ronald D. Kouchi
President of the Senate
Twenty-Eighth State Legislature
Regular Session of 2016
State of Hawaii
Sir:
Your Committee on Ways and Means, to which was referred H.B. No. 1046, H.D. 2, S.D. 1, entitled:
"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO WRONGFUL IMPRISONMENT,"
begs leave to report as follows:
The purpose and intent of this measure is to provide a procedure for persons who are actually innocent of crimes for which they were convicted and imprisoned to seek compensation from the State.
Your Committee received written comments in support of this measure from the Department of the Attorney General, a Maui County Councilmember, American Civil Liberties Union of Hawaii, Community Alliance on Prisons, Innocence Project, Hawaii Friends of Restorative Justice, and three individuals.
Your Committee finds that innocent persons who have been wrongly convicted of crimes and subsequently imprisoned have been uniquely victimized. These persons face distinct challenges upon re-entering society and have difficulty achieving legal redress due to a variety of substantive and technical obstacles in the law. Your Committee finds that these individuals deserve a process of redress over and above the existing tort remedies to seek compensation for damages from the jurisdiction that wrongly convicted and imprisoned them.
Your Committee has amended this measure by changing the effective date to July 1, 2076, to facilitate further discussion on the measure.
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 H.B. No. 1046, H.D. 2, S.D. 1, as amended herein, and recommends that it pass Third Reading in the form attached hereto as H.B. No. 1046, H.D. 2, S.D. 2.
Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committee on Ways and Means,
|
|
|
________________________________ JILL N. TOKUDA, Chair |
|
|
|
|