Bill Text: HI HB636 | 2024 | Regular Session | Introduced
Bill Title: Relating To Use Of Force In Self-protection.
Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Republican 5-0)
Status: (Introduced - Dead) 2023-12-11 - Carried over to 2024 Regular Session. [HB636 Detail]
Download: Hawaii-2024-HB636-Introduced.html
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HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES |
H.B. NO. |
636 |
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THIRTY-SECOND LEGISLATURE, 2023 |
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STATE OF HAWAII |
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A BILL FOR AN ACT
relating to use of force in self-protection.
BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF HAWAII:
SECTION 1. The legislature finds that there has been an alarming uptick in violent crimes in the city and county of Honolulu in the past year. According to data from the Honolulu Police Department, the number of murders, aggravated assaults, sex assaults and robberies rose by nearly six per cent in the first seven months of 2022 compared to the same period one year earlier. Some districts in the county have been hit significantly harder than others, such as Waikiki, where aggravated assaults jumped forty per cent from the previous year compared to 3.4 per cent across the board.
The legislature finds that due to the troubling state of public safety in Hawaii currently, it is more imperative than ever to grant residents the right to defend themselves in situations of grave danger, even using deadly force when necessary.
The purpose of this Act is to clarify when the use of deadly force is not justified.
SECTION 2. Section 703-304, Hawaii Revised Statutes, is amended to read as follows:
"§703-304
Use of force in self-protection.
(1) Subject to the provisions of
this section and of section 703-308, the use of force upon or toward another
person is justifiable when the actor believes that such force is immediately
necessary for the purpose of protecting [himself] oneself against
the use of unlawful force by the other person on the present occasion.
(2) The use of deadly force is justifiable under
this section if the actor believes that deadly force is necessary to protect [himself]
oneself against death, serious bodily injury, kidnapping, rape, or
forcible sodomy.
(3) Except as otherwise provided in subsections
(4) and (5) of this section, a person employing protective force may estimate
the necessity thereof under the circumstances as [he] the person believes
them to be when the force is used without retreating, surrendering possession,
doing any other act which he has no legal duty to do, or abstaining from any
lawful action.
(4) The use of force is not justifiable under this section:
(a) To resist an arrest which the actor knows is being made by a law enforcement officer, although the arrest is unlawful; or
(b) To resist force used by the occupier or
possessor of property or by another person on [his] the person's
behalf, where the actor knows that the person using the force is doing so under
a claim of right to protect the property, except that this limitation shall not
apply if:
(i) The actor is a public officer acting in the
performance of [his] the officer's duties or a person lawfully
assisting him therein or a person making or assisting in a lawful arrest; or
(ii) The actor believes that such force is
necessary to protect [himself] oneself against death or serious
bodily injury.
(5) The use of deadly force is not justifiable
under this section if[:
(a) The]the actor, with the intent
of causing death or serious bodily injury, provoked the use of force against [himself]
oneself in the same encounter[; or
(b) The actor knows that he can avoid the
necessity of using such force with complete safety by retreating or by
surrendering possession of a thing to a person asserting a claim of right
thereto or by complying with a demand that he abstain from any action which he
has no duty to take, except that:
(i) The actor is not obliged to retreat from
his dwelling or place of work, unless he was the initial aggressor or is
assailed in his place of work by another person whose place of work the actor
knows it to be; and
(ii)].
(6) A
public officer justified in using force in the performance of [his] the
officer's duties, or a person justified in using force in [his] the
person's assistance or a person justified in using force in making an
arrest or preventing an escape, is not obliged to desist from efforts to
perform [his] the person's duty, effect the arrest, or prevent
the escape because of resistance or threatened resistance by or on behalf of
the person against whom the action is directed.
[(6)]
(7) The justification afforded by this section extends to the use of
confinement as protective force only if the actor takes all reasonable measures
to terminate the confinement as soon as [he] the actor knows that
[he] the actor safely can, unless the person confined has been
arrested on a charge of crime."
SECTION 3. This Act does not affect rights and duties that matured, penalties that were incurred, and proceedings that were begun before its effective date.
SECTION 4. Statutory material to be repealed is bracketed and stricken. New statutory material is underscored.
SECTION 5. This Act shall take effect upon approval.
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INTRODUCED BY: |
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Report Title:
Self-Protection; Use of Force; Deadly Force
Description:
Clarifies when the use of deadly force is not justified.
The summary description
of legislation appearing on this page is for informational purposes only and is
not legislation or evidence of legislative intent.
