Have you checked out The Hot Seat? It's our opinion-page blog that brings in your elected leaders and people in the news and lets you ask the questions during a live online chat.

On The Hot Seat last week was state Attorney General Mark Bennett. (Names of questioners are screen names given during our online chat.)

Ken Chang: We are the only state in America that had indigenous people overthrown (in a controversial manner) to then become a state. We are the only state that has property held in trust for that overthrown nation (creating a preference). We have the only private school in the nation willed by a princess of the indigenous race (1884) and even though the preference is Hawaiian, no race is barred. Courts cannot cite any precedents. We are a one-of-a-kind state. Your comments, please.

Mark Bennett: I agree we should win in court cases that challenge government programs that benefit Native Hawaiians. And we have won them, including the recent Arakaki case that was dismissed in federal court.

Christopher: Could you comment on AG office plans to combat the illegal grading and destruction of historic and environmental sites statewide, the most recent being the destruction of an entire Big Island village and heiau site listed on the Historic Register?

Can you please proactively assist the Historic Preservation Division before more irreplaceable areas are bulldozed?

Mark Bennett: Unfortunately, many historic sites in Hawai'i are prehistoric, and most lay people cannot readily identify them. These include unmarked Native Hawaiian burials, as well as heiau that are not always structurally intact. I think the state ought to consider how to better educate the public about the nature and significance of these sites. If the destruction of such a site violates civil, criminal or administrative law, the Department of the Attorney General will prosecute such violations.

Debra K.: Do you feel the sex-offender registry is working? Would it not just make it more difficult for people to start fresh? Please address the problems other cities have been forced to deal with, such as failure to comply and offenders who served their time being forced underground.

Mark Bennett: I do believe the registry is working.

I believe that providing parents and other citizens information about sex offenders living in their neighborhoods makes a great deal of sense. We see evidence from all over the nation, including Hawai'i, about sex-offender recidivism, and about the harm these recidivists cause children; harm sometimes resulting in the murder of children. People should be given an opportunity to rehabilitate themselves, and in Hawai'i, sex offenders have an opportunity to get off the public registry.

But the bottom line for me is that the public registry helps make Hawai'i safer. It is why I fought for a state constitutional amendment to allow it to happen. In just over two years, our Web site has gotten more than 9 million hits.

We are vigorously investigating and prosecuting cases of criminal failures to register or update, and I see no evidence that the registry has forced convicted offenders to go "underground."

Steve Doyle: You and your staff have been very proactive in the fight against crime in our state, but we still see daily reports in the media of criminals who have numerous prior felony convictions being arrested for committing yet another crime.

Are our judges too lax or lenient with these repeat offenders, or does our Legislature need to re-examine the laws that our judges are guided by in order to sentence a repeat felon to "serious" prison time?

Mark Bennett: I personally believe that sentences meted out in state court are often too lenient. For example, in the cases of those who try to entice children over the Internet to have sex, we needed a law change to even get a mandatory one year in jail for offenders. In similar federal prosecutions, the offenders would have gotten much, much more time.

Tom: As a lifelong Democrat, I feel Hawai'i's legal landscape has turned far too conservative. Please explain your position of three strikes and on putting drug users into our already overcrowded jails. I feel this is terrible policy.

Mark Bennett: While I respect your opinion, I disagree with it. I do not believe that our legal landscape has turned conservative or "too conservative."

I supported our "Three Violent Strikes" bill because I believe the worst of the worst offenders ought to get a mandatory 30 years to life in jail. And it very, very seldom happens that a person who is convicted only of "drug possession" as opposed to selling drugs or victimizing citizens is sent to jail.

Ni: After your stint as AG, what are your plans?

Mark Bennett: My current plans are to return to the private practice of law. I am a trial lawyer by trade, and I really enjoy trying cases. I started out my career as a federal prosecutor (nine years), and I have to say that there are times when I think that I wouldn't mind simply working as a line prosecutor again.

Jeanne Mariani-Belding: Interested in the chief justice's job? Would you accept it if asked?

Mark Bennett: I plan on returning to the private practice of law when I have finished serving as AG. While it is possible I could decide, in the future, to apply for a judgeship, I have no current plans to do so.

George: Recently the media has spun assaults involving Caucasian victims and the use of the term "haole," by labeling these incidents as "hate crimes." News accounts mask the opinions from legal scholars and practitioners that these are in fact not hate crimes under catchy headlines using the words "hate" or "racial tensions."

I gather that you understand that the U.S. government has historically and continues to wrong Native Hawaiians. You argue that federal recognition of Native Hawaiians is the vehicle to ensure Native Hawaiians obtain "justice." You also argue that this recognition is not "race based." Because you recognize the historical oppression, in the context of the Akaka bill, will historical oppression be taken into account when hate crimes are prosecuted?

Mark Bennett: "Hate crimes" are defined by relevant statutes. Mostly, they involve violence directed at a person because of race, gender, religion, etc.

Historical oppression, no matter how real, is usually not relevant in the decision as to whether or not a hate crime has been committed.

Paul S.: What do you consider to be your legacy or proudest accomplishments?

Mark Bennett: We successfully ended the Felix (special education) and Hawai'i State Hospital federal court cases, which had, in a real sense, placed the management of two state departments under the supervision of the U.S. Department of Justice and the federal court for many, many years. We avoided a federal takeover of the Hawai'i Youth Correction Facility.

We won the Arakaki federal court case, which had challenged programs benefiting Native Hawaiians.

We helped restart ceded-land payments to OHA, which had been halted by the previous administration.

I successfully argued in the U.S. Supreme Court in defense of a statute that limited the rent large oil companies could charge service-station owners.

We have successfully prosecuted many criminal cases, including cases involving corruption at the airport; involving sex assaults by guards and a warden at the HYCF and prisons; involving those who abuse the elderly and disabled; and involving those who attempt to entice children, over the Internet, to have sex.

We have brought litigation against drug manufacturers because of what we believe to be illegal overcharges for prescription drugs — we have recovered more than $1 million, and I believe we will recover a great deal more.