DIVISION 5. CRIMES AND CRIMINAL PROCEEDINGS
TITLE 37. HAWAII PENAL CODE
Codification. Act 9, Session Laws 1972, effective January 1, 1973, repealed or recodified former Title 37, entitled "Criminal Law," and enacted present Title 37, entitled "Hawaii Penal Code." For the disposition of former Title 37, see table in Appendix, this title.
Commentaries. The Commentary and Supplemental Commentary following the various sections of the Penal Code are published pursuant to §701-105, which provides that the commentaries may be used as an aid in understanding the Code but not as evidence of legislative intent. The commentaries, prepared by the Judicial Council of Hawaii and by legislative counsel, have been edited by the revisor of statutes. For a fuller explanation of the commentaries, see explanatory note below.
Explanatory Note on Commentaries
1. Introductory Note on Commentaries
2. Revisor's Note on Commentaries
Chapter
701 Preliminary Provisions
702 General Principles of Penal Liability
703 General Principles of Justification
704 Penal Responsibility and Fitness to Proceed
705 Inchoate Crimes
706 Disposition of Convicted Defendants
707 Offenses Against the Person
708 Offenses Against Property Rights
708A Money Laundering
709 Offenses Against the Family and Against Incompetents
710 Offenses Against Public Administration
711 Offenses Against Public Order
712 Offenses Against Public Health and Morals
712A Forfeiture
713 Repeal and Recodification Provisions
Appendix
1. Abbreviations
2. Table of Disposition--Title 37. Criminal Law
EXPLANATORY NOTE ON COMMENTARIES
1. INTRODUCTORY NOTE ON COMMENTARIES
The Commentary and Supplemental Commentary are published with the Hawaii Penal Code pursuant to §701-105 of the Code.
The Commentary was originally published by the Judicial Council of Hawaii and accompanied the Council's Proposed Draft of the Hawaii Penal Code (1970). The Proposed Draft of the Code and the Commentary were prepared by the Council's Penal Law Revision Project, chaired by Circuit Judge Masato Doi. The principal drafters were Frank B. Baldwin, III, formerly Acting Associate Professor of Law, University of California at Davis, California, who served as Project Director, and Don Jeffrey Gelber, who was the Reporter.
The Proposed Draft was subjected to intensive review by the legislature which enacted the Code in 1972 after making several modifications. Section 701-105 provides that the Commentary accompanying the Judicial Council of Hawaii's Proposed Draft of the Code, as revised, shall be published and may be used "as an aid in understanding the provisions of this Code, but not as evidence of Legislative intent." The Supplemental Commentary was prepared by Mr. Gelber and Mr. Wendell Kimura, and is intended, when read together with the original commentary, to constitute the revision contemplated by §701-105. The Supplemental Commentary attempts to explain the changes which were made by the legislature to the Proposed Draft at the time of enactment in 1972 and also subsequent legislative amendments in 1973 and 1974. It also contains relevant case citations through 1974.
The legislative purpose in mandating the publication of the commentaries to the Penal Code is dealt with in §701-105 and the commentaries thereon. An example of judicial use of the Commentary can be found in State v. Nobriga, 56 H. 75, 527 P.2d 1269 (1974).
2. REVISOR'S NOTE ON COMMENTARIES
The commentaries prepared as described above have been revised by the Office of Revisor of Statutes pursuant to authority granted by the legislature.
Primarily, the Commentary, prepared by the Judicial Council, was edited to reflect the present text of the Code, where this could be readily done, without wholesale alterations, or where retention of the original comments to nonexistent language invited confusion. Revision in this respect included deletion of comments rendered irrelevant by legislative departures from the original proposals, addition of explanations to cover new matter, and some recasting of language and repositioning of comments.
Such revision of the Commentary necessitated revision of the Supplemental Commentary. Accordingly, material found in the Supplemental Commentary was adjusted, some material being transferred to the Commentary and some being omitted. The Supplemental Commentary was further revised by deleting the case annotations contained therein and placing them under what is styled as "Case Notes" in conformity with the general format of the Hawaii Revised Statutes. And, wherever possible, the commentaries have been gender-neutralized.
Further, the Revisor's Office updated the commentaries by adding notes covering changes to the Code that were adopted in the 1975 through 2014 legislative sessions. In the 2014 republication of volume 14, the Revisor's Office also made technical nonsubstantive changes to the commentaries to conform with customary citing and drafting convention.
CHAPTER 701
PRELIMINARY PROVISIONS
Section
701-100 Title and effective date of amendments
701-101 Applicability to offenses committed before the
effective date of amendments
701-102 All offenses defined by statute; applicability to
offenses committed after the effective date
701-103 Purposes of this Code
701-104 Principles of construction
701-105 Effect of commentary
701-106 Territorial applicability
701-107 Grades and classes of offenses
701-108 Time limitations
701-109 Method of prosecution when conduct establishes an
element of more than one offense
701-110 When prosecution is barred by former prosecution
for the same offense
701-111 When prosecution is barred by former prosecution
for a different offense
701-112 Former prosecution in another jurisdiction: when
a bar
701-113 Former prosecution before court lacking jurisdiction
or when fraudulently procured by the defendant
701-114 Proof beyond a reasonable doubt
701-115 Defenses
701-116 Proving applicability of the Code
701-117 Prima facie evidence
701-118 General definitions
701-119 Repealed
Note
L 2001, c 91, §4 purports to amend this chapter.