Former city Prosecutor Carlisle wants to run for his old job

One day after a state judge dismissed a petition to impeach Honolulu Prosecuting Attorney Keith Kaneshiro, his predecessor Peter Carlisle wants the court to declare him eligible to run for Kaneshiro’s office in the 2020 election.

Candidates need to certify on their nomination papers that they are qualified under law for the offices they are seeking. Carlisle on Tuesday filed in state Circuit Court for certification that he is eligible, saying that he intends to be a candidate for his old office in the next statewide elections.

The candidate filing period is Feb. 3 to June 2, 2020.

The Revised Charter of the City and County of Honolulu says that the prosecuting attorney shall be licensed to practice law in the state, have five years of experience as a lawyer and “have been actively involved in criminal cases for at least three” of the 10 years preceding the election.

Carlisle was Honolulu prosecuting attorney from 1996 to 2010.

In his filing Carlisle says that for the past 10 years he has been “drafting a lengthy discourse that will serve as an instructional memorandum on how to try a murder case without a body.”

He successfully prosecuted Kirk Lankford for the 2007 murder of Japanese visitor Masumi Watanabe, whose body was never found. Lankford testified that he cast her body out to sea in waters off Kualoa.

Circuit Judge Jeffrey Crabtree on Monday dismissed Honolulu businessman Tracy Yoshimura’s petition to impeach Kaneshiro because the city does not accept the petition’s electronic signatures. Yoshimura is expected to file a new petition that contains traditional, hand-written signatures.