Gov. Linda Lingle<\/a> on Tuesday vetoed Senate Bill 2045<\/a>, legislation aimed at handling human trafficking offenses in Hawaii. The decision means the state remains one of just six states without any laws designed specifically to fight human trafficking<\/a>.<\/p>\n
Law enforcement and prosecutors widely spoke out<\/a> against the bill, which they said contained overly broad language that criminalized some legal activities and lumped together offenses that now elicit separate charges, making trafficking cases harder to prosecute by requiring multiple criteria in order to win convictions. Despite frustration about the veto, the bill\u2019s drafters cited some gains. <\/p>\n
Supporters of the bill, including an editorial writer<\/a> at the Los Angeles Times, say its veto represents a gap in national security, and makes Hawaii an outlier.<\/p>\n
The bill’s defeat comes in stark contrast to its unanimous passage by state lawmakers, though some of those lawmakers have since said they didn\u2019t believe<\/a> the law would have been effective.<\/p>\n
The governor\u2019s explanation for vetoing SB 2045 echoes testimony against the bill from the offices of the public defender, Hawaii Attorney General Mark Bennett and Honolulu city prosecutor Peter Carlisle<\/a>. When Lingle added the bill to her list of possible veto items<\/a> on June 21, she explained her reasoning for doing so was that the law \u201cdoes not clearly define the prohibited conduct in a way that can be enforced and prosecuted in court.\u201d<\/p>\n
“There were fundamental disagreements in how to accomplish, at least, the legislative piece of it,” said Dennis Dunn, director of the Victim Witness Kokua Services division in the Honolulu Department of the Prosecuting Attorney. “But I think most people felt like we were working together.” 1<\/a><\/sup><\/p>\n
Senate Bill 2045 would have been the state’s first law criminalizing human trafficking in Hawaii<\/a>. The bill’s drafters have vowed to come back with a stronger bill and more supporters next session. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"apple_news_api_created_at":"","apple_news_api_id":"","apple_news_api_modified_at":"","apple_news_api_revision":"","apple_news_api_share_url":"","apple_news_cover_media_provider":"image","apple_news_coverimage":0,"apple_news_coverimage_caption":"","apple_news_cover_video_id":0,"apple_news_cover_video_url":"","apple_news_cover_embedwebvideo_url":"","apple_news_is_hidden":"","apple_news_is_paid":"","apple_news_is_preview":"","apple_news_is_sponsored":"","apple_news_maturity_rating":"","apple_news_metadata":"\"\"","apple_news_pullquote":"","apple_news_pullquote_position":"","apple_news_slug":"","apple_news_sections":[],"apple_news_suppress_video_url":false,"apple_news_use_image_component":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2782],"tags":[],"post_format":[],"project":[],"coauthors":[1773],"class_list":["post-2579","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-hawaii-beat"],"slp_mobile_featured_image":null,"acf":[],"slp_coauthors":[{"display_name":"Adrienne LaFrance","user_nicename":"alafrance","author_link":"https:\/\/www.civilbeat.org\/author\/alafrance\/"}],"slp_acf":false,"slp_primary_category":null,"apple_news_notices":[],"parsely":{"version":"1.1.0","meta":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","headline":"Lingle Vetoes Human Trafficking Bill","url":"http:\/\/www.civilbeat.org\/2010\/07\/2579-lingle-vetoes-human-trafficking-bill\/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"http:\/\/www.civilbeat.org\/2010\/07\/2579-lingle-vetoes-human-trafficking-bill\/"},"thumbnailUrl":"","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":""},"articleSection":"Hawai\u02bbi","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Adrienne LaFrance"}],"creator":["Adrienne LaFrance"],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"天美视频","logo":""},"keywords":[],"dateCreated":"2010-07-06T20:59:41Z","datePublished":"2010-07-06T20:59:41Z","dateModified":"2010-07-08T02:57:41Z"},"rendered":"