Summer 2000Council Edition 2000
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Council Edition 2000 | Fall 2000 |
 Annual Council Guest - Kay Maxwell - LWV National LiaisonAlana Bowman to Speak at League Brown Bag LunchPresident's Message (Virginia Isbell)Vote Count (Arlene Ellis)Hawaii Clean Elections (Laure Dillon & George Fox)Violence Prevention (Suzanne Meisenzahl)Don't Gamble with Aloha (Dorothy Bobilin)Education Committee (Mary Anne Raywid)Judiciary Study Committee (Jean Aoki)High-Traffic Websites Team Up to Sponsor 'Rolling Cyber Debate'Kauai Annual Meeting (Carol Bain)Congressional Candidates' ForumLeague of Women Voters Clearinghouse Open!Man and his Legacy, TheVoter Service |
Violence PreventionOn Mother's Day, League participated in the local rally held at the State Capitol in conjunction with national Million Mom March. The purpose of the national march was to mobilize concerned individuals across the country to advocate for reasonable gun laws and to put congress on notice to take action. One of the key measures being pushed is handgun registration and licensing of gun owners. Hawaii's gun laws include registration. This years local lobbying efforts included a bill for firearm re-registration. It passed but in the end it didn't contain any provision for re-registration. This dropping of re-registration from the bill surprised everyone because in House and Senate drafts it was included. The current bill just clarifies the circumstances under which the chiefs of police may seize firearms, ammunition and permits from an owner who is disqualified from ownership or possession of firearms or ammunition. In the January edition of the Aloha Voter there was an article about the February 9, 2000 domestic homicide of Andrea Delcina-Dequito. She had been in and out of the system at least since her husband was convicted of abuse in 1998. We wondered if she had ever received a safety plan and if not was it one of the gaps in the system? The Prosecuting Attorney's Victim Advocate Supervisor wrote in response to our article, "the parameters of our role do not include ongoing counseling, lethality, risk assessment, safety planning or long term case management. First and foremost, our role is to keep the victim informed as to the status of their case as it goes through the criminal justice system." We asked the Hawaii State Domestic Violence Coalition what they thought of this policy. They seem to accept it. The prosecutor's office "does not do lethality/risk assessments and safety planning with victims of domestic violence because doing so could jeopardize the safety of battered women". The letter also said "disclosure laws can be used to force the release of information to the perpetrator's defense attorney...." Our sources tell us that they know of no defense attorney has requested a copy of a safety plan. The Victim Witness Assistance Division of the Prosecuting Attorneys office and the State Domestic Violence Coalition seem to be out of touch. Suzanne Meisenzahl
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