Hawaii judges under fire as public urges courts to keep criminals behind bars
By Kristen Consillio
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HAWAII (KITV) — Former judge and prosecutor Randal Lee knows firsthand the responsibility of sound judgements to keep the community safe from those posing a danger to the public.
“Just like offenders have to be accountable, judges should be held accountable too,” he said.
As crime surges on Oahu, many of those responsible for breaking the law remain on the streets even after they’ve been arrested and prosecuted.
And there’s a growing perception that the weak link in efforts to curb lawlessness is the judiciary.
“The judiciary system needs to be overhauled. Bottom line is, they’re letting the people down and letting all of these guys who have 50, 60 counts of the same thing let them out and then what happens?,” said Sen. Kurt Fevella, who represents the Ewa Beach community. “They commit a higher and a more deadly crime by killing somebody or putting somebody injured in the hospital. That is unacceptable.”
Lee says the lack of accountability is causing the public to lose faith in the justice system.
“A lot of times people feel that nothing’s going to happen, nobody cares, the public safety is not as important,” he said. “Because they see things, cases like this repeatedly happening. A crime occurs and nothing. There’s no consequences.”
The reason in his mind?
“Sometimes it’s their own self preservation,” Lee said. “They want to retain their positions and if they take the hard stance on some of these crime issues, they may not be retained by the Judicial Selection Commission.”
And with judges having broad discretion on cases: “Sometimes this discretion doesn’t necessarily mean they make the ethical, moral choices that the public expects.”
Fevella, who’s on the Senate Judiciary Committee, says the lenient courts are making it harder to fight crime.
“Right now our HPD hands are tied, our prosecuting hands are tied. And everybody in the community that don’t know that HPD is doing their job and they’re getting beat up by the community, it’s not their fault,” he said. “It’s judges now days for whatever reason, deciding to put emotion or feelings instead of following the letter of the law.”
A spokesman for the judiciary says Chief Justice Mark Recktenwald was unable to comment due to the code of judicial conduct.
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