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HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES             H.R. NO.              
TWENTIETH LEGISLATURE, 2000                                
STATE OF HAWAII                                            
                                                             
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                     HOUSE  RESOLUTION
  REQUESTING THE MEMBERS OF HAWAII'S CONGRESSIONAL DELEGATION TO
    SEEK THE AMENDMENT OF FEDERAL CAPITAL PUNISHMENT LAWS TO
    EXEMPT HAWAII AND THE OTHER STATES THAT HAVE ABOLISHED THE
    DEATH PENALTY FROM THE COVERAGE OF THOSE LAWS.



 1        WHEREAS, although the Hawaii Territorial Legislature
 2   abolished the death penalty in 1957, Hawaii residents who
 3   commit certain drug-related murders may still be subject to the
 4   death penalty under federal law; and
 5   
 6        WHEREAS, the federal government has jurisdiction in
 7   certain drug trafficking crimes in which a murder has been
 8   committed under the federal Anti-Drug Abuse Act of 1988 and the
 9   federal Death Penalty Act of 1994; and
10   
11        WHEREAS, the 1988 federal law authorizes the death penalty
12   in drug conspiracy murders, while the 1994 federal law expanded
13   the types of murder that could be prosecuted as capital cases,
14   including drug-related murder committed with a firearm; and
15   
16        WHEREAS, according to the nonprofit Death Penalty
17   Information Center in Washington, D.C., the number of federal
18   death penalty prosecutions has risen since the 1994 federal law
19   went into effect on January 1, 1995; and
20   
21        WHEREAS, although no one has yet been executed under these
22   federal laws, pending appeals and other challenges to the death
23   sentences, there are currently twenty-one men on federal death
24   row awaiting execution at the newly constructed federal death
25   chamber in Indiana; and
26   
27        WHEREAS, two of these men on federal death row are from
28   Massachusetts and Vermont, which are among the twelve states
29   that do not have capital punishment; and
30   
31        WHEREAS, Hawaii has had four cases that fall under the
32   1994 federal death penalty law.  United States Attorney General
33   Janet Reno declined to authorize the death penalty in two of
34   those cases, another man pleaded guilty to first-degree murder
35   in exchange for federal prosecutors dropping their death
36   penalty prosecution, and there has been no decision in the
37   fourth case, which involves the shooting death of an Army
38   helicopter pilot; and
39   

 
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 1        WHEREAS, the federal government has the authority to
 2   recommend the death penalty in these cases, since they fall
 3   under the federal statutes authorizing capital punishment,
 4   which preempt state laws under the Supremacy Clause of the
 5   United States Constitution; and
 6   
 7        WHEREAS, nevertheless, the federal laws authorizing the
 8   death penalty, along with the prosecutorial decision to invoke
 9   the death penalty in Hawaii, undermines Hawaii's decision to
10   abolish capital punishment that was made forty-three years ago;
11   and
12   
13        WHEREAS, the federal decision to authorize capital
14   punishment in effect reinstates the death penalty in Hawaii
15   through the back door, unfairly extending that penalty to
16   crimes that have traditionally been under local jurisdiction;
17   and
18   
19        WHEREAS, there is an immediate need to amend federal death
20   penalty statutes to exempt Hawaii and the other states that
21   have abolished the death penalty from the coverage of those
22   statutes; now, therefore,
23   
24        BE IT RESOLVED by the House of Representatives of the
25   Twentieth Legislature of the State of Hawaii, Regular Session
26   of 2000, that the members of Hawaii's congressional delegation
27   are requested to seek the amendment of the federal Anti-Drug
28   Abuse Act of 1988, the Federal Death Penalty Act of 1994, and
29   any other federal capital punishment legislation, to exempt
30   Hawaii and the other states that have abolished the death
31   penalty from the coverage of those laws; and
32   
33        BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that certified copies of this
34   Resolution be transmitted to the President of the United
35   States, the President of the United States Senate, the Speaker
36   of the United States House of Representatives, and the members
37   of Hawaii's congressional delegation.
38 
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41                           OFFERED BY: ___________________________