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Oral Argument Before the Hawaii Supreme Court–No. SCWC-16-0000668

No. SCWC-16-0000668 Thursday, June 6, 2019, 11:15 a.m.

STATE OF HAWAI I, Respondent/Plaintiff-Appellee, vs. KEITH KAUHANE, Petitioner/Defendant-Appellant.

The above-captioned case has been set for argument on the merits at:

Supreme Court Courtroom
Ali iolani Hale, 2nd Floor
417 South King Street
Honolulu, HI 96813

Attorney for Petitioner:

Hayden Aluli

Attorney for Respondent:

Lyle Keanini, Deputy Prosecuting Attorney

NOTE: Order accepting Application for Writ of Certiorari, filed 04/18/19.

COURT: Recktenwald, C.J., Nakayama, McKenna, Pollack, and Wilson, JJ.

[ Listen to the entire audio recording in mp3 format ]

Brief Description:

In 2015, Petitioner/Defendant-Appellant Keith Kauhane (“Kauhane”) was arrested while protesting the construction of the Daniel K. Inouye Solar Telescope. He was charged with obstructing a convoy of trucks that was delivering materials to the summit of Haleakal . Hawai i Revised Statutes § 711-1105.

Kauhane appeals from the Circuit Court of the Second Circuit’s (“circuit court”) September 9, 2016 Judgment of Conviction and Probation Sentence related to the offense of Obstructing.

Although the Intermediate Court of Appeals (“ICA”) vacated the circuit court’s judgment and remanded the case for a new trial, Kauhane asks this court to address two issues that he contends were incorrectly resolved by the ICA. Kauhane’s application for writ of certiorari asks:

1. Whether the ICA gravely erred in holding that the State’s Complaint was sufficient despite its failure to define the term “obstructs”; and

2. Whether the ICA gravely erred in upholding the circuit court’s sustaining of the State’s “golden rule” objection, which precluded Kauhane from arguing that the jury should evaluate the choice-of-evils defense by “walking in Kauhane’s shoes.”