§710-1013  Compounding.  (1)  A person
commits the offense of compounding if the person intentionally accepts or
agrees to accept any pecuniary benefit as consideration for:



(a) Refraining from seeking prosecution of an
offense; or



(b) Refraining from reporting to law-enforcement
authorities the commission or suspected commission of any offense or
information relating to the offense.



(2)  It is an affirmative defense to a
prosecution under subsection (1) that the pecuniary benefit did not exceed an amount
which the defendant believed to be due as restitution or indemnification for
harm caused by the offense.



(3)  Compounding is a misdemeanor. [L 1972, c
9, pt of §1; gen ch 1993]



 



COMMENTARY ON §710-1013



 



  The harm in allowing the reporting or prosecution of any
offense to be "bought off" need hardly be developed at length.  The
very functioning of any effective system for penalizing criminal behavior
depends upon the unhampered reporting and prosecution of offenses.  The
traditional question is whether the offense of "compounding" shall
apply to one who receives no pecuniary benefit, but nonetheless refrains from
reporting an offense.  When the offense was a felony, the common law recognized
the crime of misprision of a felony, even if no pecuniary benefit was
conferred.  Most jurisdictions which have codified their penal law have
rejected the crime of misprision,[1] as have most modern attempts at penal law
revision.[2]



  Subsection (2) excludes cases where the consideration
accepted is believed to be due as restitution or indemnification, and it does
not require judicial approval.  The commentary to the Model Penal Code, from
which this section is derived, states the reason for the exception as follows:



Our society
does not, in general, impose penal sanctions to compel persons to inform
authorities of crime.  A person who refrains from reporting a crime of which he
was the victim, because his loss has been made good, is no more derelict in his
social duty than one who, out of indifference or friendship to the offender,
fails to report a known offense.  The threat of prosecution for compounding is,
in any event, ineffective to promote reporting of offenses by victims who are
willing to "settle" with the offender, since compounding laws can
easily be evaded by accepting restitution or indemnification without explicit
"agreement" to drop prosecution.  Finally, compounding laws impugn
the widespread practice of prosecutors, who are frequently content to drop
prosecution when restitution has been made by the offender.[3]



  Previous Hawaii law was in accord with the great majority of
jurisdictions in rejecting the offense of misprision of a felony.  The law
penalized compounding of an offense carrying a life sentence with roughly the
same dispositions as the Code makes available for any case of compounding.[4] 
When the compounding was of a lesser offense, the offense was a
misdemeanor.[5]  The Code authorizes a uniform and, therefore, in some cases,
more severe penalty than that authorized by present law.



 



__________



§710-1013 Commentary:



 



1.  M.P.C., Tentative Draft No. 9, comments at 207 (1959).



 



2.  M.P.C. §242.5; N.Y.R.P.L. §215.45; Prop. Del. Cr. Code
§§736, 737; Prop. Mich. Rev. Cr. Code §4530; Prop. Pa. Cr. Code §2209.



 



3.  M.P.C., Tentative Draft No. 9, comments at 203 (1959).



 



4.  H.R.S. §725-5.



 



5.  Id.