§710-1076  Tampering with physical evidence. 
(1)  A person commits the offense of tampering with physical evidence if,
believing that an official proceeding is pending or about to be instituted, the
person:



(a) Destroys, mutilates, conceals, removes, or alters
physical evidence with intent to impair its verity in the pending or
prospective official proceeding;



(b) Makes, presents, or offers any false physical
evidence with intent that it be introduced in the pending or prospective
official proceeding.



(2)  "Physical evidence," as used in
this section includes any article, object, document, record, or other thing of
physical substance.



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



 



COMMENTARY ON §710-1076



 



  Official proceedings rely on the integrity of physical
evidence, in addition to the integrity of witnesses and jurors, to achieve
equitable results.  To allow the impairment or falsification of physical
evidence would undermine greatly the fairness and impartiality of the judicial
process.



  This section makes it an offense both to conceal true
evidence and to offer false evidence, since to do either would obviously
misrepresent the truth which it is the object of the proceeding to determine. 
In both cases, the actor must have an intent that the concealment or
falsification should have an effect in the proceeding.  "Physical
evidence" is defined principally to distinguish it from that evidence
which is offered as testimony by witnesses.



  Previous Hawaii law dealt with the offense of tampering with
physical evidence under the general heading of supressing evidence.[1]  The
prior law provided that any person who "destroys, conceals, or suppresses
any deposition or other legal evidence in any suit or proceeding..."[2]
would be subject to a misdemeanor penalty.  It had been held that the offense
of suppressing evidence is not limited to judicial proceedings.[3]  The Code
extends the law by specifically covering presentation or fabrication of false
physical evidence and any form of tampering when it is believed an official
proceeding is about to be instituted.



 



SUPPLEMENTAL COMMENTARY ON §710-1076



 



  The Code as adopted differs from the Proposed Draft in that
in subsection (1)(a) the words "or availability" were deleted after
the word "verity."



 



__________



§710-1076 Commentary:



 



1.  H.R.S. §725-4.



 



2.  Id.



 



3.  Territory v. Achuck, 31 Haw. 474 (1930).