Report Title:

Crimes; Defenses; Duress

Description:

Permits the affirmative defense of duress to be asserted as to any criminal offense, not just those defined by the Penal Code.

HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

H.B. NO.

436

TWENTY-THIRD LEGISLATURE, 2005

 

STATE OF HAWAII

 


 

A BILL FOR AN ACT

 

RELATING TO DURESS.

 

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

SECTION 1. Section 702-231, Hawaii Revised Statutes, is amended to read as follows:

"(5) In prosecutions for any offense [described in this Code], the defense asserted under this section shall constitute an affirmative defense. The defendant shall have the burden of going forward with the evidence to prove the facts constituting such defense, unless such facts are supplied by the testimony of the prosecuting witness or circumstance in such testimony, and of proving such facts by a preponderance of the evidence pursuant to section 701-115."

SECTION 2. Statutory material to be repealed is bracketed and stricken.

SECTION 3. This Act shall take effect upon its approval.

INTRODUCED BY:

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