COMMENTARY
Approval of the 4 amendments will help protect victims and make Hawai'i safer for its people

By Mark Bennett and Margery Bronster

We urge Hawai'i's citizens to vote "Yes" on the four state constitutional amendments on the November ballot. Many people ask what they can do to help make Hawai'i a safer place. We believe supporting these amendments is a small thing you can do to make Hawai'i safer. The amendments will have a big impact on helping victims of crime, especially women and children who are victims of rape and sexual assault.

Amendment 1 helps children who have been raped or molested. The Legislature made it a separate crime to repeatedly sexually assault a child. The law said that as long as each juror found beyond a reasonable doubt that the defendant sexually assaulted a child three or more times, the jurors did not have to agree on when the three incidents occurred. This helped in cases involving younger children, who clearly remembered the abuse and the person who did it, but had trouble remembering the dates, especially when assaulted time and again by someone with whom they lived.

The Hawai'i Supreme Court struck down this law, saying that the Legislature lacked the power to pass it. This decision flew in the face of settled legal principles and identical statutes in states such as California. The decision made it more difficult to prosecute child molesters. It is heartbreak to watch a child go through a prosecution of a molester. It is a travesty when the prospects for conviction are made more difficult. A "Yes" vote reverses that, and will help protect children who have been sexually assaulted.

Amendment 2 — Megan's Amendment — gives citizens the right to protect themselves and their children by giving them access, probably on the Internet, to information about convicted sex offenders who may live next door or across the street. The Legislature had passed such a law, but the state Supreme Court struck it down, finding that every convicted sex offender, regardless of his crime, and regardless of how many children he had raped or molested, is entitled to a separate court hearing before the public can learn where that person lives. Hawai'i has a backlog of 1,900 convicted sex offenders awaiting such hearings (and those who claim these are "five-minute hearings" simply don't have their facts straight). This amendment will allow the Legislature to give parents information crucial to protecting their kids. Hawai'i's sex offenders are just as dangerous as those on the Mainland, yet Hawai'i's parents don't get the vital information that Mainland parents get. A "Yes" vote will enable you to protect your kids. It's as simple as that.

Amendment 3 helps crime victims, especially rape victims, get help after they have been assaulted. The Legislature made conversations between crime victims and people such as rape crisis counselors confidential. This helped ensure that rape victims could get confidential help. It also assured that women were not victimized a second time by having their most private conversations with counselors dragged through a courtroom. The Hawai'i Supreme Court, however, said that in many cases it was more important for criminal defendants to have access to the private conversations than to allow the victims to keep them private.

Now victims will be less likely to report crimes, especially rape. Victims may also delay or refuse the counseling that starts the healing process for fear of disclosure of their most private comments to their counselors. Victims may choose to abandon criminal cases altogether after they learn what is in store for them in court. A "Yes" vote reinstates confidentiality and protects victims of crime, especially rape victims.

Amendment 4 allows prosecutors to begin criminal cases by presenting sworn written statements to judges. Each witness will still need to testify at trial. This system, or an equivalent one in which cases are begun with the testimony of a summary witness, is in place in most states. Hawai'i voters overwhelmingly approved "information charging" two years ago, but the Hawai'i Supreme Court overturned the vote because the text of the amendment hadn't been published in the newspaper enough times. This amendment will save thousands of victims and police officers from having to appear multiple times in court on the same case, thus providing fundamental fairness to victims and putting police officers on the street instead of waiting around a courthouse. A "Yes" vote protects victims and saves resources while still providing defendants a fair trial.

The small minority that opposes these amendments makes many claims about them that do not stand up to careful analysis. In Hawai'i, those accused of crimes and those who have already been convicted of crimes have more rights than anywhere else in the nation. Inching Hawai'i back toward the center — by supporting these four amendments — does not threaten anyone's civil liberties.

Balancing the interests of victims and the community with the rights of defendants should be viewed as increasing the civil rights of all.

With Amendment 1, defendants are still guaranteed the right to be judged by a jury that must unanimously agree on guilt beyond a reasonable doubt before conviction.

With Amendment 2, public access to information only occurs after an individual has been convicted of a sex crime or a crime against a child beyond a reasonable doubt.

With Amendment 3, no defendant is denied due process of law, and the privacy rights of victims are given some protection.

With Amendment 4, a judge must still make a determination of probable cause, and a jury must still find a defendant guilty beyond a reasonable doubt before any conviction.

There is a real theme here. "Yes" votes protect victims and make Hawai'i safer. "Yes" votes protect the rights of all of us. We respectfully ask you to vote "Yes" on each of the four constitutional amendments on the ballot.