Report Title:

Criminal Defendants'; constitutional rights

Description:

Requires merely substantial compliance with the requirements of statute when police enter a home to arrest a person suspected of a crime. (HB2299 HD1)

HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

H.B. NO.

2299

TWENTY-THIRD LEGISLATURE, 2006

H.D. 1

STATE OF HAWAII

 


 

A BILL FOR AN ACT

 

RELATING TO CHAPTER 803.

 

BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF HAWAII:

SECTION 1. Article I, section 6 of the Hawaii State Constitution vests the people with a right to privacy. The legislature is tasked with taking affirmative steps to implement this right to privacy. While article I, section 7 of the Hawaii State Constitution protects the rights of the people of Hawaii to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects against unreasonable searches, seizures, and invasions of privacy, statutory provisions of section 803-11, Hawaii Revised Statutes (HRS), provide specific directives to law enforcement officers regarding entering homes to arrest offenders that afford greater protection than the constitution. When entering homes to make arrests, mere reasonableness is insufficient. In other words, substantial compliance to statutory provisions is insufficient and strict compliance is demanded.

When section 803-11, HRS, was first established in the middle of the 19th century, the legislature must have determined the minimum requirements for reasonableness. Despite the long tradition of protection afforded by the specific language of this statute, times may have changed and strict compliance to the requirements of the statute may no longer be appropriate.

The purpose of this Act is to invite the courts to construe the confines of reasonableness, keeping in mind that the courts are the guardians of constitutional protections for the people with one of those protections being the right to privacy.

SECTION 2. Section 803-11, Hawaii Revised Statutes, is amended to read as follows:

§803-11 Entering house to arrest. Whenever it is necessary to enter a house to arrest an offender, and entrance is refused, the officer or person making the arrest may force an entrance by breaking doors or other barriers. But before breaking any door, the officer or person shall first demand entrance in a loud voice, and state that the officer or person is the bearer of a warrant of arrest; or if it is in a case in which arrest is lawful without warrant, the officer or person shall substantially state that information in an audible voice. The officer or person making the arrest shall substantially comply with the requirements of this section."

SECTION 3. Statutory material to be repealed is bracketed and stricken. New statutory material is underscored.

SECTION 4. This Act shall take effect on July 1, 2069.