House leaders to amend bills on sex-offender list, rape

By Lynda Arakawa
Advertiser Capitol Bureau

After an outcry from law-enforcement officials and others, House leaders are rethinking their position to give all sex offenders a hearing before being listed on a public registry.

The House majority is expected today to offer amendments to the bill after weekend discussions between legislative leaders and state Attorney General Mark Bennett.

They are also expected to reach a compromise on a so-called "rape shield" bill.

"There is bipartisan acknowledgment that we need to protect children and the public from violent sex offenders, and we are working together to propose legislation that would achieve that goal," said House Majority Leader Scott Saiki, D-22nd (McCully, Pawa'a).

The House Judiciary Committee enraged law-enforcement officials, victim advocates and others last week when it decided to preserve the requirement that all sex offenders receive a hearing before being listed. Law-enforcement officials said the process is unwieldy and insufficient to protect the community.

The Senate's version of the bill, supported by law-enforcement officials, proposes a constitutional amendment allowing lawmakers to decide which categories of offenders would be put on the public registry and to determine whether the offenders should get a chance to object.

Senate Judiciary and Hawaiian Affairs Committee Chairwoman Colleen Hanabusa, D-21st (Nanakuli, Makaha), who was involved in the weekend discussions, said talks included establishing a process so sex offenders who are already listed can petition to be taken off the public registry. She also said the attorney general's office has agreed to go ahead with the hearings process to put offenders on the list in the meantime.

The state had posted convicted sex offenders' names, photos and other information on a Web site but shut the site down in 2001 when the Hawai'i Supreme Court ruled it violated due process because it did not give convicts a hearing before publicizing their names.

The U.S. Supreme Court ruled last year that photos of convicted sex offenders may be posted on the Internet and rejected the argument that offenders deserved a chance to prove they aren't dangerous to avoid having their information put on the Internet.

Legislative leaders and Bennett also worked to reach a compromise on a "rape shield" bill that originally proposed a constitutional amendment to allow the Legislature to bar at trial the admission of a sex-assault victim's sexual history, as well as confidential communications between a victim and a doctor, psychologist, counselor or mental-health professional.

The House Judiciary Committee last week changed the bill to clarify that the measure not infringe upon the constitutional rights of the accused and deleted the reference to licensed mental-health professionals.

Reach Lynda Arakawa at larakawa@honoluluadvertiser.com or at 525-8070.