STAND. COM. REP. NO.1045
Honolulu, Hawaii
, 2001
RE: S.B. No. 951
S.D. 1
H.D. 1
Honorable Calvin K.Y. Say
Speaker, House of Representatives
Twenty-First State Legislature
Regular Session of 2001
State of Hawaii
Sir:
Your Committee on Judiciary and Hawaiian Affairs, to which was referred S.B. No. 951, S.D. 1, entitled:
"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO HATE CRIMES,"
begs leave to report as follows:
The purpose of this bill is to address the incidence of hate crimes in Hawaii by:
(1) Establishing extended sentencing penalties for criminal offenders who engage in hate crimes;
(2) Providing a reporting mechanism to compile, track, and analyze hate crimes data; and
(3) Setting forth a defective date of enactment for purposes of providing further discussion this legislative session.
The Hawaii Civil Rights Commission, Hawaii State Commission on the Status of Women, Japanese American Citizens League, American Civil Liberties Union, Civil Unions-Civil Rights Movement, Hawaii Hate Crimes Task Force, Anti-Violence Project, and members of the public testified in support of this measure.
The Department of the Attorney General, Office of the Public Defender, Maui Prosecuting Attorney, Honolulu Police Department, Hawaii County Police Department, Christian Voice of Hawaii, a member of the Graduate Student Organization Court at the University of Hawaii, and members of the public testified in opposition to this measure.
The Office of Information Practices submitted comments on the measure.
In response to the testimony of the Department of the Attorney General, your Committee has amended this bill by:
(1) Revising the bias categories to conform with those currently used by the U.S. Attorney General and the Federal Bureau of Investigation pursuant to the Hate Crime Statistics Act of 1990. The current categories are race, religion, disability, ethnicity, national origin, and sexual orientation; and
(2) Changing the effective date to effective upon its approval.
As affirmed by the record of votes of the members of your Committee on Judiciary and Hawaiian Affairs that is attached to this report, your Committee is in accord with the intent and purpose of S.B. No. 951, S.D. 1, as amended herein, and recommends that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as S.B. No. 951, S.D. 1, H.D. 1, and be referred to the Committee on Finance.
Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committee on Judiciary and Hawaiian Affairs,
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____________________________ ERIC G. HAMAKAWA, Chair | ||