A bill proposing to ask voters to amend the state Constitution to establish rights for victims of crime was deferred Thursday, but state Rep. Karl Rhoads says he plans to revise the bill this summer and try again next session in an election year.
Rhoads said it is worth proposing a constitutional amendment because so many victims feel the system isn’t working despite state laws enacted for victims’ rights more than two decades ago.
"If it hasn’t worked until now, you try something else," he said. "I think there are some advantages to having it in the Constitution."
He said victims would have an easier time having their constitutional rights enforced, rather than trying to get others to uphold state law.
House Bill 1144 would offer a constitutional amendment to be voted on during the next general election.
The bill says, "Victims of crime and their survivors currently have no express constitutional protections … their rights should be protected in a manner no less vigorous than those of the accused."
Some rights the bill seeks to establish are timely notification of public court proceedings and changes in custodial status; reasonable notice of plea agreements; timely restitution; and notification of a victim’s constitutional rights.
Thirty-two other states already have constitutional amendments for victims’ rights, the bill says.
Rhoads, chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, said the bill was deferred because some of its language could create a conflict between rights of defendants and victims, such as giving victims the right to a speedy trial when a defendant may be requesting more time for an investigation.
"It’s just not ready," he said after the hearing. "There’s stuff in it that doesn’t quite make sense."
A majority of those testifying in Thursday’s hearing supported the measure, such as Kailua resident Theresa Paulette.
Her 15-year-old son, Brian Paulette, was killed by a drunken driver while riding a moped in Kaneohe 22 years ago.
"From the start, if I sought any kind of information or tried to give information to the police, I felt as though I was imposing and annoying to them," she said. "I didn’t get any information after the crash, so I initiated the calls. I felt resistance every step of the way."
As a volunteer victim’s advocate with Mothers Against Drunk Driving, she said she knows other victims continue to experience the same problems.
But the state attorney general’s office opposed the measure, saying in testimony that the bill would allow victims to "disrupt or interfere with the criminal justice process." The victims’ "bill of rights" under state law should adequately covers victims’ rights, the office said.
Meg Garvin, executive director of the National Crime Victim Law Institute in Portland, Ore., said Hawaii’s Constitution grants rights to defendants but not to victims.
"(Victims) are a piece of evidence," she said.
She said a constitutional amendment is necessary because people don’t always know state law.
"When things rise to the level of constitutional rights, culturally we all pay attention to them," she said. "Statutes, we just don’t do that."
She said research shows crime victims who are treated poorly suffer increased trauma and disengage from the system, increasing the likelihood that they don’t report the next crime or testify.
"The system becomes broken," she said.
A companion bill in the state Senate has not been scheduled for a hearing.
