STAND. COM. REP. NO. 3418

Honolulu, Hawaii

RE: H.B. No. 2513

H.D. 1

S.D. 1

Honorable Ronald D. Kouchi

President of the Senate

Thirty-Second State Legislature

Regular Session of 2024

State of Hawaii

Sir:

Your Committee on Judiciary, to which was referred H.B. No. 2513, H.D. 1, entitled:

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO EXPUNGEMENT,"

begs leave to report as follows:

The purpose and intent of this measure is to expand expungement eligibility to persons whose convictions for consuming a measurable amount of alcohol while underage or first-time property offenses predated current expungement provisions.

Your Committee received testimony in support of this measure from the Office of the Public Defender and Opportunity Youth Action Hawaiʻi.

Your Committee received testimony in opposition to this measure from the Crime Victim Compensation Commission, Department of the Prosecuting Attorney of the City and County of Honolulu, Mothers Against Drunk Driving Hawaii, and Retail Merchants of Hawaii.

Your Committee finds that currently, persons convicted under section 291E-64, Hawaii Revised Statutes, for driving under the influence of an intoxicant while under the age of twenty-one or who qualify for sentencing under section 706-622.9, Hawaii Revised Statutes, for a first-time property offense are able to expunge their conviction and arrest record. However, persons who were convicted before the laws explicitly permitting expungement for these offenses were enacted are unable to receive the same benefits of expunging their conviction and arrest record afforded by existing law. This measure will allow persons convicted under prior statutes to receive eligibility for expungement by applying existing expungement opportunities retroactively to persons previously convicted.

Your Committee has amended this measure by:

(1) Inserting legislative findings clarifying that persons under the age of twenty-one who engaged in driving under the influence of an intoxicant lack access to expungement eligibility if their offense predated current expungement provisions; and

(2) Making it effective upon its approval.

As affirmed by the record of votes of the members of your Committee on Judiciary that is attached to this report, your Committee is in accord with the intent and purpose of H.B. No. 2513, H.D. 1, as amended herein, and recommends that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as H.B. No. 2513, H.D. 1, S.D. 1, and be placed on the calendar for Third Reading.

Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committee on Judiciary,

________________________________

KARL RHOADS, Chair