§702-201  "Voluntary act" defined. 
"Voluntary act" means a bodily movement performed consciously or
habitually as the result of the effort or determination of the defendant. [L
1972, c 9, pt of §1]



 



COMMENTARY ON §702-201



 



  This section defines "voluntary act" in general
terms relying chiefly on the characteristic of voluntariness--the effort and
determination of the defendant.  The Code's formulation is intended to exclude
from the category of voluntary action such bodily movements as (a) reflex or
convulsions, (b) bodily movements during unconsciousness and sleep, (c) conduct
during hypnosis or resulting from hypnotic suggestion, and (d) any other bodily
movement that is not a product of the effort and determination of the
defendant, either conscious or habitual.



  The exclusion of involuntary action from the scope of penal
liability must be viewed in the light of the provisions of Chapter 704 on
physical disease, disorder, and defect which exclude penal responsibility.  In
that chapter acquittal is conditioned on submission to treatment or commitment
tailored to the condition which excludes responsibility.  The Code attempts to
provide "therapy or...custodial commitment"[1] for those dangerous
individuals who are unable to conform their conduct to the requirements of the
law because of some condition which would be difficult to regard as a
"mental disease or defect" under orthodox treatment of penal
irresponsibility.  At the same time, because treatment is flexible and tailored
to the condition in question, it does not bear "harshly on the individual
whose condition is nonrecurrent."[2]



  No prior Hawaii statutory provision dealt with the issue of
voluntariness of acts (other than in its relation to duress or mental disease,
disorder, or defect), however, a recent case tends to support the position of
the Code.[3]



 



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§702-201 Commentary:



 



1.  M.P.C., Tentative Draft No. 4, comments at 119 (1955).



 



2.  Id. at 121.



 



3.  See State v. Matsuda, 50 Haw. 128, 432 P.2d 888 (1967).