§28-2 Prosecutes offenders, enforces bonds.
The attorney general shall be vigilant and active in detecting offenders
against the laws of the State, and shall prosecute the same with diligence.
The attorney general shall also enforce all bonds and other obligations in
favor of the State that may be placed in the attorney general's hands for that
purpose, by any person having the lawful custody of the papers; and the
attorney general shall likewise be diligent in prosecuting all persons who may
obstruct any street, channel, harbor, wharf, or other highway, or any stream or
public watercourse, or commit any trespass, or waste on any portion of the
public domain, or other public property. [L 1866, p 17; RL 1925, §1487; RL
1935, §501; RL 1945, §1502; RL 1955, §30-2; HRS §28-2; gen ch 1993]
Case Notes
Duties in connection with divorce matters. 35 H. 849.
Supersession of county prosecutor upheld. 63 H. 424, 629
P.2d 1126.
Hawaii county ordinance that established cannabis offenses as
the lowest law enforcement priority in the county conflicted with, and was
therefore preempted by, this section and other state laws requiring the state
attorney general and county prosecuting attorney to investigate and prosecute
violations of the statewide Penal Code. 135 H. 411, 353 P.3d 953 (2015).
Notes of Decisions
Cited in
9
cases (
1 in the last 5 years), 1981–2025 · leading case:
Ruggles v. Yagong., 353 P.3d 953 (Haw. 2015).
Ruggles v. Yagong., 353 P.3d 953 (Haw. 2015).
· cites it 4× “Pursuant to HRS § 28-2 (2009), the attorney general “shall be vigilant and active in detecting offenders against the laws of the State, and shall prosecute the same with diligence.”
Rees v. Carlisle, 153 P.3d 1131 (Haw. 2007).
· cites it 2× “HRS § 28-2 is entitled “Prosecutes offenders, enforces bonds” and provides, among other things, that the attorney general shall prosecute offenders against the laws of the State.”
Amemiya v. Sapienza, 629 P.2d 1126 (Haw. 1981).
· cites it 3× “(Emphasis added) On the other hand, HRS § 28-2 (1976) provides: § 28-2 Prosecutes offenders, enforces bonds.”
Chun v. Bd. of Trs., 952 P.2d 1215 (Haw. 1998).
· cites it 2× “in all cases criminal or civil in which the State may be a party, or be interested,” HRS § 28-1 (1993); (2) to “be vigilant and active in detecting offenders against the laws of the State, and [to] prosecute the same with diligence,” HRS § 28-2 (1993); (3) to “investigate…”
Ruggles v. Yagong, 323 P.3d 155 (Haw. App. 2014).
· cites it 2× “HRS § 28-2 (2009 Repl.) provides, “[t]he attorney general shall be vigilant and active in detecting offenders against the laws of the State, and shall prosecute the same with diligence.”
State v. Miles, 354 P.3d 178 (Haw. App. 2015).
· cites it 2× “Exodus further cites to HRS § 28-2 (2009) which provides that "[t]he attorney general shall also enforce all bonds and other obligations in favor of the State that may be placed in the attorney general's hands for that purpose, by any person having the lawful custody of the…”
Surnow v. Buddemeyer (D. Haw. 2019).
· cites it 2× “Pursuant to HRS § 28-2 (2009), the attorney general “shall be vigilant and active in detecting offenders against the laws of the State, and shall prosecute the same with diligence.”
Annotations are extracted automatically from the opinions in the
Syfert caselaw corpus and ranked by authority, recency, and
treatment. Dots show Syfertize treatment of the citing case itself.