About a dozen alleged “johns” are having state prostitution charges against them dismissed because of a temporary defect in the law.

The Hawaii Supreme Court ruled last week that when state lawmakers made johns ineligible in 2014 for plea deferrals, they unfairly subjected the johns to harsher penalties than prostitutes, even though they could have been charged with the same crime. Prostitutes were and are still eligible for plea deferrals.

The Lawmakers fixed the defect in 2016 when they changed the language in state prostitution laws to distinguish between the john, who “(p)ays, agrees to pay or offers to pay a fee to another to engage in sexual conduct,” and the prostitute, who “(e)ngages in, or agrees or offers to engage in sexual conduct with another person in return for a fee.”

That means defendants charged as johns after the fix are not eligible for plea deferrals. The Honolulu Department of the Prosecuting Attorney says 13 alleged johns were charged with prostitution before the fix.

Prostitution is a petty misdemeanor punishable by up to 30 days in jail and mandatory fine of between $500 and $1,000.

A deferral of a guilty or no-contest plea gives a defendant the opportunity to avoid conviction and have the charge dismissed and the arrest expunged.

Then-Honolulu District Judge James Ashford dismissed the cases in 2015 against two of the 13 alleged johns, Matthew Sean Sasai and Brent N. Tanaka, who challenged the constitutionality of the charges against them. The state appealed.

The Supreme Court upheld the dismissals on the grounds that the charges violated Sasai’s and Tanaka’s due process and equal protection rights.