A week before an important legislative deadline, proponents of a Hawaii “Victims’ Bill of Rights” gathered at the state Capitol on Friday to encourage lawmakers to pass a measure that would spell out the rights of crime victims in the state Constitution.
More than 60 supporters of Senate Bill 3034 were on hand to wave signs on Beretania Street for the measure, which has already been passed by the Senate and the House Judiciary Committee. To survive the current legislative session, the bill must be approved by the House Finance Committee by Friday.
The measure, also known as Marsy’s Law, is based on the California Victims’ Bill of Rights Act of 2008. The bill is named after Marsy Nicholas, a University of California, Santa Barbara, student who was stalked and murdered by her ex-boyfriend in 1983.
“We’re here today to give a little bit of encouragement to the House Finance Committee and others to hear the bill and pass the bill along,” said Stacy Evensen, director of Marsy’s Law for Hawaii.
Hawaii is one of 18 states that do not have a constitutional provision that protects victims’ rights. While victims and their families have statutory rights, victims’ advocates say these rights can and are being ignored.
SB 3034 proposes an amendment to the state Constitution that would go before voters in the November general election to make victims’ rights enforceable.
The bill would guarantee the following basic rights to crime victims during criminal proceedings: the right to be heard, the right to be notified of proceedings and changes to the offender’s custodial status, the right to be present at court proceedings and the right to provide input before a plea agreement is finalized.
Kimberlyn Scott, whose daughter Charli went missing while pregnant two years ago, said that there were eight occasions when she wasn’t notified about court hearings. (Charli Scott’s ex-boyfriend, Steven Capobianco, has pleaded not guilty to a second-degree murder charge in the case.)
“I wasn’t even notified of some of them, (and) the last one I was notified as they were walking into court,” the 49-year-old mother said. “We want to be there to represent Charli. We don’t want the accused to feel like nobody cared.”
Nonohe and Chris Botelho also said they were not informed of big developments tied to a court case stemming from the death of their son Joel, who was shot in the front yard of their Kaneohe home five years ago. (In December 2011 a Circuit Court jury found Makuola Collins guilty of second-degree murder and second-degree attempted murder in the fatal shooting of Botelho, his former Castle High School football teammate.)
“With this constitutional amendment, we’re hoping that this can give it some teeth that somebody is going to have to be compelled to (directly respond) with the victims in more of a favorable way because we get left out of the loop all the time,” said Nonohe Botelho, 54.
Sen. Will Espero, who introduced a similar bill in 2015, also attended the rally in support of SB 3034.
“This measure is providing a fairness and balance to the judicial system that takes into account the victims much more so” than it does now, said Espero (D, Ewa Beach-Iroquois Point). “The measure certainly deserves to keep moving.”
