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Three candidates for the position of Honolulu Prosecuting Attorney—David Arakawa, Peter B. Carlisle, and Randal Yoshida, each a former supervising deputy prosecutor—presented their approaches to Hawaii's criminal justice system in a recorded forum hosted by Randall Roth. All three identified drugs and repeat offenders as primary drivers of rising crime, but differed on methods and priorities. Arakawa stressed prison overcrowding as the central constraint and called for a multi-pronged approach combining prosecution, rehabilitation, and community engagement. Carlisle cited his record leading the Oahu Career Criminal Unit, during which felonies fell by roughly 17,000 over five years, and argued that a prosecutor must lead by example in the courtroom. Yoshida emphasized administrative capacity and a plan to target major drug distributors with elite teams of prosecutors and police. All three addressed domestic violence, juvenile crime, the no-drop prosecution policy, and the death penalty, on which each expressed qualified support in limited circumstances. The question put to voters was which combination of trial experience and administrative skill best equips a prosecutor to lead a large public office during a period of rising violent crime.
Transcript
Read or download the full transcript (.txt). Speaker labels were assigned automatically and may contain errors.
Companion newspaper commentaries
Commentaries by the guests, published in The Honolulu Advertiser around the broadcast.
