Prosecution tools pass test

Deals are reached on bills to strengthen laws on wiretaps and minimum sentencing

Crime fighters appear to have gotten what they have longed for: the means to put violent repeat offenders behind bars for a long time and approval to use federal wiretap information in state prosecutions.

A so-called "three-strikes" bill, Senate Bill 2260, and a state wiretap bill, Senate Bill 965, had been rejected by Democrats in the Legislature since they were first supported by Republican Gov. Linda Lingle in 2003.

But yesterday, Rep. Sylvia Luke (D, Pacific Heights-Punchbowl) and Sen. Colleen Hanabusa (D, Nanakuli-Makua), chairwomen of the House and Senate Judiciary committees, agreed to compromise versions of both bills, clearing them for passage before the Legislature adjourns next week.

"The wiretap bill is a major shift. This is one that the AG and the prosecutors wanted to adopt for years," Hanabusa said.

Attorney General Mark Bennett, a former federal prosecutor, called the wiretap measure "an excellent bill."

Democrats had resisted changing the state wiretap law, which required a hearing before granting a wiretap. Local prosecutors wanted to be able to use information gleaned from federal wiretaps to prosecute drug dealers, but because the state law was more restrictive than the federal law, the federal information could not be used in state prosecutions.

"There should be no good-faith argument that federal wiretap evidence obtained pursuant to a court order should be excluded from state court," Bennett said.

Hanabusa said the Legislature is focusing on an increased sense of public concern regarding drug and property crimes, and that is driving changes in both laws.

"The reasons for the movement is that as the public gets more and more outraged the Legislature has to respond to that.

"The Legislature is making it clear to violators that enough is enough," Hanabusa said.

Just two days ago, the state House had refused to budge on the three-strikes law, but Hanabusa said the changes will make Hawaii's mandatory minimum sentencing laws much tougher.

Persons found guilty of three violent felony crimes will be sentenced to 30 years to life in prison, without exception.

Bennett also praised that agreement.

"This bill will take the discretion out of the sentencing for someone who has been convicted of three separate violent crimes on three separate occasions," Bennett said.

"We wanted to target the worst of the worst; we didn't want a law that copies states that are putting people in jail for life for felony shoplifting," Bennett said.

Persons convicted of any Class A or Class B felony such as rape, murder, assault, kidnapping or burglary or robbery in the first degree would be liable for the three-strikes penalty. Any two of the three crimes could be burglary.

Bennett praised the Legislature for including burglary because for anyone who has been burglarized, "it is a crime of violence," Bennett said.

The three-strikes bill was criticized by Kat Brady, coordinator for the Hawaii Prison Alliance.

Brady said research shows that states without the three-strikes law have a lower rate of violent criminal behavior.

"I think it is outrageous that the Legislature would pass a law without knowing the impacts of it," Brady said.