Assignment #4

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The Massie rape case is one of the most famous trial cases in Hawaii history. (Stannard, 2001, p.2) It received national attention. However, the actual rape case was not the trial worth remembering. The trial case of the 4 men who beat one defendant nearly to death and a couple who killed another defendant was the case that shows the courage of some local civilians.
In 1931 Horace Ida, a local man, was picked up by police at his home. He thought he knew why they were there. Two hours before the police showed up he was in a car wreck where he got into a scuffle with a woman from the other car. He filed charges just after the incident. However, upon arrival he was put under arrest for the kidnapping, beating, and rape of Thalia Massie. A Pearl Harbor Navy Officer identified him as one of 5 men to participate in the rape.
The trial for the 5 men was well covered in local papers. Every Hawaiian thought there was going to be a guilty verdict. However, they had the wrong men on trial. These men were strictly chosen because they were foreign. Each one had an ethnic background. Since the men were innocent, the courts also found it that way. The jury declared themselves deadlocked. The 5 men walked.
Citizens were outraged. Horace Ida was one defendant who took a massive beating. He was ganged up on, and nearly beaten to death. The other defendant wasn’t as lucky. (Stannard, 2001, p.2) Thalia’s husband and mother kidnapped Joseph Kahahawai and then shot him in the heart. He died instantly.
The Navy men who beat Ida and the mother and husband were all put on trial for their actions. This was the case that finally received national attention. The trial was covered on the radio and by the New York Times. Congress was even tapping into the case.
This case held in its hands the end of civilian rule in the islands. Congress warned that a fair decision by the jury could possibly end the civilian rule. The men were backed by the whole community since everyone thought the 5 men who were released committed the crime. Despite this, the jury rendered a decision. The convicted everyone on manslaughter carrying a 10 year sentence.
The jury showed a lot of courage for rendering a decision in such chaos. Everyone expected another hung jury, but the men and women chose the harder right, other than the easier wrong. They are the reason this case has stuck in Hawaii history.

At the time that the events of this story occurred, there were numerous issues with the criminal justice process, the most important of which is likely the rampant racism and prejudices of many Americans. According to the story, the rape defendants, even before they were tried, were prejudged as being guilty, not just by community locals, but by Congress as well. This prejudgment led to the beating of one defendant, and the murder of another. Even though these attackers and murderers were brought to trial afterwards, public sentiment was largely in support of them, and against the victims. Theoretically the most important consequence of this prejudice was the threat of “Commission”-based rule Hawaii if a fait verdict was reached, which ultimately did impede the execution of justice as the vigilante attackers and murderers were found guilty, but had their sentences commuted as part of a deal with the federal government.
In contrast, if these events had occurred today, I believe that racism would certainly be an issue, but not on the same level. A larger problem might be the failure of Thalia Massie herself to report her own rape if it had indeed happened, due to similar racial concerns. Massie might be prejudged as a liar and a racist, exaggerating her interaction with the defendants because of this. (Stannard, 2001)In popular media, charges against whites of racism by nonwhites is commonplace, and in spite of accuracies and inaccuracies, this has likely influenced the willingness of some whites to report crimes commited against them by nonwhites.

The state of Hawaii has four local police agencies. (Reaves, 2004) These four agencies are: Hawaii County Police, Honolulu Police, Kauai Police, and Maui County Police. Those agencies combined make a total of 3,559 personnel. This means there are 282 employees for every 100,000 residents, but some of them are sworn officers. A sworn officer has the power to arrest and detain someone while a non-sworn officer only has the power to write parking tickets and ordnance violations. Also a non-sworn officer can be a volunteer or a Public Service Officer. Out of the 3,556 personnel, 2,618 of them are sworn in officers. This brings the number of officers per 100,000 resident down to only 207. Hawaii is unique in that it is the only state that only has local law enforcement. There is no state law enforcement or sheriffs office, but in place of the state law enforcement, they have created The Hawaii Department of Public Safety (HDPS). (Reaves, 2004) It is classified as a special jurisdiction agency. It primarily provides court related services. I feel that Hawaii has enough sworn personnel for their population. The island is so small that it will not take a lot of time for numerous officers to get there. Next there is a low crime rate in Hawaii that makes the need for offices less. Finally having The HDPS takes some of the burden off of the officers.


References

Stannard, D. (2001). Honolulu Advertiser. The Massie Case: Injustice and Courage. Retrieved from http://the.honoluluadvertiser.com/article/2001/Oct/14/op/op03a.html

Reaves, B. A. (2004). Census of State and Local Law Enforcement Agencies, 2004, NCJ 212749. 2004Census of State and Local Law Enforcement Agencis.

Assignment #3

(Credit to Rutgers School Of Law)

HAWAII LAW

The definition of a felony according to dictionary.com is an offense, as murder or burglary, of graver character than those called misdemeanors. Felonies are subjective and vary accordingly for every state. Some examples of a felony in the state of Hawaii are tethering a dog or confining it to an inhumane place. (Hanabusa, 2009. http://www.capitol.hawaii.gov/session2009/CommReports/SB1222_SD1_SSCR590_.HTM) When convicted with a felony, it will make a persons life very difficult to survive outside of prison. They would have hard times finding jobs, lose certain civil rights and licensing. On the other hand, a misdemeanor is a criminal offense less serious than a felony. Like felonies, misdemeanors vary from state to state. An example of a misdemeanor in Hawaii would be if a person were to be found in possession with a concealed weapon. Any such person concealing a dangerous weapon can be arrested on the spot without a warrant and jailed immediately.
It seems like common law crimes are serious crimes a person has committed or intends to commit. On the other hand, felonies and misdemeanors seem to considered more like minor crimes that have been committed or the person may or may not have intended to commit a crime.

In Hawaii, when a person pleads insanity, the courts use the American Law Institute standard to determine if the insanity plea is liable. It is also known as the Substantial Capacity Test (ALI). The ALI was designed to soften the M’naghten rule, which states if at the time of the criminal act, the perpetrator was suffering from a disease of the mind that they did not know the nature of the act, or didn’t know what they were doing was wrong. The Substantial Capacity Test states insanity should be defined as an impairment to control one’s behavior. This test is a combination of the M’naghten rule and the irresistible pulse which says a person is insane if they did know their actions were illegal, but had a disorder where they couldn’t control their actions. The main difference is the Substantial Capacity Test allows for more medical evidence to be present.
If an offender in Hawaii meets the requirements for the ALI, they are acquitted for a physical or mental disorder. This would mean they are formally innocent in the terms of the courts. However, the perpetrator will most likely go through treatment at the discretion of the courts ruling. Treatments are not required all the time, but it is up to the Hawaii justice system to determine if the offender needs hospitalization or not.

PBS Frontline. (1995-2005).State Insanity Defense Laws. Retrieved September20, 2009, from Frontline: Official website Website:
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/crime/trial/states.html

Siegel, L. (2008). Introduction to Criminal Justice. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth.

In 2007 IC3 received at total of 810 complaints from the state of Hawaii. Auction fraud and Non-delivery of merchandise/payment made up 69% of the complaints. The others were made up of: Confidence fraud, Check fraud, Credit Card fraud, Computer fraud, Financial Institutions fraud, Identity theft, and Nigerian Letter fraud. The amount of money loss was between $100-$4999.99, although the highest amount taken was $75,000 involving confidence fraud. The total losses reported exceeded $1 million dollars. Out of the top 9 categories 5 of them who reported the loss, lost 100% of it. 3 out of the remaining 4 lost over 93% and the least being 31% lost. The total median dollar loss for all complaints reporting a dollar loss was $750.00. In Hawaii, 78.2% of the perpetrators were male and only 21.8% were female. The complaints consisted of 58.6% reported by males and 41.4% reported by females, but the ages varied a lot. Most of the complaints were reported by people between the ages of 20 and 59. This group made up 90.4% of the complaints. The rest being from either under 20 or over 60 years of age. Even though 7% of the complaints were from people over the age of 60, the average loss from the age group was the highest at $1350. Hawaii as a whole only makes up of .5% of the total complaints in the U.S.

Internet Crime Complain Center. (2007). Hawaii’s IC3 2007 Internet Crime Report. Retrieved September 19, 2009, from IC3Web site:

http://www.ic3.gov/media/annualreport/2007/Hawaii%202007%20Report.pdf

Homework #2

According to the UCR statistics presented by the state of Hawaii, violent crimes make up a minority of all index crimes in the state, while property index crimes make up the vast majority. Among violent crimes, murder is the least commonly occurring, while robbery and aggravated assault are the most commonly occurring. Property index crimes far outnumber violent crimes, with larceny-theft accounting more than 60% of all index crimes, followed by robbery in commonality of occurrence. Clearly, the bulk of index crimes reported are classified as larceny-theft.
Looking at this data in terms of UCR data, one might wish to know how Hawaii defines larceny-theft. How often does the hierarchy rule affect the reported statistic? And what goods do these offenses commonly include?
From the perspective of NCVS data, one might ask what business relationships the victims in question have. What criminal records might they have? Do the victims have children under the age of 12 who were witness to the crime?
And from the perspective of self-report data, one might ask what the motive of each report is. What are the criminal records of the reporters? Can these reports be corroborated by NCVS data?

In Hawaii smoking is illegal indoors in some place, it is still legal outdoors. People who smoke in public are choosing to harm themselves, but the people who breathe in the smoke are being harmed just as much. Even if people don’t want to smoke they are exposed to it in public. Another reason it should be illegal is that overtime less people would want to smoke because of such limited areas it is allowed. The last reason is that the government should protect the people and not the businesses. The profit from smoking is so high that the government will continue to want the tax and revenue.
The legal drinking age should be changed to 18 years old. The first reason is because most teens under the age of 21 will drink no matter what the law is. In a University of Indiana article they state that if the age is change the universities and restaurants can monitor more closely on the younger drinkers. The next reason is that the laws we have in affect right now does not stop under age drinking so the government needs to take a different approach to the problem. The last reason is that if you trust an 18 year old to defend our country they should be given all the rights a normal, adult, American receives.

Corbit Ahn, 29, has been accused of murdering an 18 year old girl named Iris Rodrigues-Kaikana. Iris’ body was found the morning of August 24th in the Kamehameha Homes public housing complex. Red marks were present on her neck indicating strangulation. Corbit Ahn had been present at these apartments many times to visit his niece and nephew. He would also give martial arts training to the current boy friend of the children’s mother.
Due to Ahn’s criminal history, we would classify him as a career criminal. He has been given quite a few sentences and breaks, yet he still continues to break the laws. This description best fits the developmental theory of criminal behavior. The life course theory states criminality is a process, influenced by certain traits and social experiences. These experiences can alter one’s behavior for the better, or in Ahn’s case, the worse.
Right now Corbit Ahn is still going through the court process. He has his preliminary is set for September 10, 2009. If convicted he could be facing quite the sentence if not life in prison. It is doubtful for Hawaii to sentence him to death, since there has not been an execution for roughly 50 years. The likely course of action will be life in prison without parole. However, we believe life in prison with the possibility of parole should be his sentencing if convicted. During his prison sentence though, he should have to attend rehabilitation programs, and also see a therapist to find out why he continues to commit crimes.

Hawaii Murder Suspect Already on Probation in Domestic Violence. (2009, September 9). by Jim Dooley. http://www.honoluluadvertiser.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=2009909090364

Why the drinking age should be lowered: An opinion based upon research. (2009, September 9). by Ruth C. Engs. http://www.indiana.edu/~engs/articles/cqoped.html

Smoking, ban in public places (2009 September 9). by George Molyneaux. http://www.idebate.org/debatabase/topic_details.php?topicID=526

The layers of the criminal justice "wedding cake" are the levels of coverage and exposure certain crimes get depending on what the crime is and who committed it. The top layer would be crimes that may not necessarily have been a serious crime (they can be though) but they get a lot of media attention because it may have happened to somebody important or it was just a unique crime. The middle layer has the high profile crimes that will receive lots of news coverage. These are serious crimes and the people will read and look up more info regarding these crimes so they get a decent amount of attention. The largest layer is the third and bottom layer. It is the biggest like the base of a traditional wedding cake and represents all the small scale crimes that make up the majority of our inmates in the prison system. People caught with drug paraphernalia or your everyday common thief who gets caught. These are the crimes that happen everyday but you don't hear about them or hear very little about them because they are so frequent.

An example of the top layer of the cake would be the Michael Jackson case which may be ruled as a homicide now. It happened to a celebrity so it is dominating headlines across the country and murder is a serious crime but it is getting a lot more coverage than if it were an everyday guy who died.

An example of the middle layer of the cake would be this case of a girl who died from parental abuse from her mother's boyfriend. Serious crime from an everyday person and it is getting attention in local Hawaii newspapers. (Burnett, John. 2009. "Girl dies in alleged domestic abuse case". West Hawaii Today. http://www.westhawaiitoday.com/articles/2009/09/07/local/local03.txt )

An example of a bottom layer crime would be someone picked up and jailed for marijuana possession. A pretty much victimless crime and we get another person added to the already overpopulated prison system.

The Hawai'i Department Of Corrections mission statement is "We are committed to providing a safe and healthy environment for staff and offenders." (Hawai'i Department of Corrections. http://hawaii.gov/psd/administration/mission-statement-and-principles/operating-and-people-principles.pdf )

The total justice system expenditure for the state of Hawaii in the year 2006 was $703,075. $278,684 was spent on the police, $245,069 was spent on judicial and legal, and $179,322 was spent on corrections. In most states police takes up a majority of the budget, and Hawaii is no exception, but in Hawaii it is in the same ballpark spending area as judicial and corrections. The reason for this could be that Hawaii is so small and broken up that a smaller police force can stay effective. Not to mention that the emphasis on tourism means at any given time a lot of the population consists of tourists who just want to vacation. It isn't as necessary to have such a large police force which puts totals on par with the other categories. This agency could cut its spending by promoting more neighborhood watch programs since communities are more likely to be close knit on these small islands. They could also cut down on police cars if they have too many as the islands are small. One last idea would be to use more deterrents to prevent crimes.

Welcome!

This is the criminal justice 104 blog for the Hawaii group! Sup.

RW, MB, GM, CR, JR, TH, AM, & KS here to shake things up.