Posted on: Wednesday, April 28, 2004

Voters will get chance to OK sex-offender list

Advertiser Staff

Hawai'i voters this year will be able to decide whether personal information about certain convicted sex offenders should be public.

The state Senate yesterday gave final approval to Senate Bill 2843, which proposes a constitutional amendment establishing a public right to access information about sex offenders as determined by the Legislature. The bill already passed the House and Gov. Linda Lingle cannot veto constitutional amendment proposals.

The proposed constitutional amendment would allow lawmakers to decide what kinds of sex offenders would be immediately put on the public registry and whether some should receive a hearing beforehand. The amendment would also allow offenders on the public list to petition to be removed.

The state used to list sex offenders' names, photos and personal information on the Internet. It closed the site in 2001 when the Hawai'i Supreme Court struck down a key portion of the law, known as Megan's law, after 7-year-old Megan Kanka, a New Jersey girl who was kidnapped, raped and killed in 1994 by a convicted sex criminal. The high court ruled the law was unconstitutional because it didn't provide for hearings to let offenders show they are no longer a danger to society.