By Kate Turner ’21
News Editor
Former Mount Holyoke Professor of Art and Studio Art Chair Rie Hachiyanagi has been in custody since December 2019. She will continue to be held without bail until her trial, which is scheduled for November 2020.
Hachiyanagi was charged with multiple counts, including attempted murder, following her alleged assault on a fellow Mount Holyoke faculty member sometime between Dec. 23 and Dec. 24, 2019. She has pleaded not guilty on all charges.
At her Feb. 19 dangerousness hearing, Judge Mark D. Mason in Franklin Superior Court ruled that there was “no condition of release” prior to Hachiyanagi’s trial that would satisfy public safety. Following a dangerousness hearing, which is requested by the Commonwealth in case of use, attempted use or threat of physical force, a defendant may legally be held in custody without bail for up to 180 days.
Hachiyanagi was originally due back in court on April 22, with a pretrial hearing scheduled for June 3, as previously reported by the Mount Holyoke News. However, as COVID-19 swept the East Coast, the normal operation of Massachusetts courts has been disrupted.
According to the Massachusetts Legislature, “the courts are currently open for business but courthouses are closed to the public for in-person hearings except to address certain emergency matters.” Though hearings continue to be conducted, they are held virtually “where feasible and consistent with constitutional rights.” As of Thursday, Sept. 17, jury trials have been postponed entirely until at least Oct. 23.
The effect of COVID on the entire legal system has been dramatic. “It has ground things to a halt,” said Hachiyanagi’s defense attorney, Thomas Kokonowski. “And made things very difficult for everyone involved, especially people who are held in jail; it is not conducive to constitutional rights.”
“My job is to confront people who are accusing my clients of things, and that’s impossible to do on the telephone,” Kokonowski added. “It is very frustrating and very difficult to try to litigate by telephone and by Zoom.”
Meanwhile, as court proceedings have been slowed to allow for social distancing, inside Massachusetts prisons and jails, distancing is nearly impossible. According to WBUR, “the DOC [Massachusetts Department of Corrections], which holds about half of all prisoners in Massachusetts, said that 72 percent of prisoners sleep within six feet of each other; 70 percent eat meals within 6 feet of other inmates and are generally able to pass within 6 feet of each other during recreational periods.”
“Correctional facilities, where physical distancing and vigilant hygiene are impossible, can be petri dishes for the rapid spread of infectious disease,” wrote the Committee for Public Counsel Services and the Massachusetts Association of Criminal Defense lawyers in an emergency petition to the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court.
Nationally, this prediction has held true: “Incarcerated people are infected by the coronavirus at a rate more than five times higher than the nation’s overall rate,” according to the Equal Justice Initiative. The death rate of inmates and incarcerated people is also higher than the national death rate.
And these numbers may be conservative ones. There are “huge differences in how many people are being tested in prisons for the virus,” according to the Marshall Project and The Associated Press.
In Massachusetts, as of Sept. 18, there have been at least 420 cases of COVID-19 reported among prisoners, a rate 228 percent higher than in Massachusetts overall, according to the Marshall Project. There is also no current data available on the number of tests administered, and these reported tests have only accounted for sentenced prisoners, not pretrial detainees, who are also held in close quarters where distancing is impossible — like Hachiyanagi.
According to WBUR, in early April, the SJC ruled that, though they could not reverse previously determined sentencing, certain pretrial detainees could be eligible for release. WBUR later reported that between April and May, the state released nearly 1,000 prisoners, though it is not clear how many of those releases were prescheduled and how many were due to COVID-19.
“That was taking place a lot in the beginning,” said Kokonowski. “Now, there are specific protocols [for release]. If there are people who have particularly compromised immune systems — you have to show a court that a person is particularly susceptible to getting COVID. Or if there is COVID in any particular facility.”
“It is certainly not a situation where they let everybody out because of COVID,” he added. “You have very specific dots to connect in order for a court to let somebody out because of COVID.”
According to the Daily Hampshire Gazette, the SJC’s ruling also does not apply to “those who are being held without bail under the state’s dangerousness statute or those who have been charged with a violent or serious offense.” Hachiyanagi falls under both categories.
For these detainees, their time in jail could actually be extended due to the pandemic. In June, the SJC held in Commonwealth v. Lougee that “its orders delaying trials due to COVID-19 allow the Commonwealth to hold defendants pre-trial beyond time limits set by statute,” defense attorney David Duncan wrote on the Boston Lawyer Blog.
It is this ruling that means Hachiyanagi will be held before trial for at least another six months past the 180-day limit, likely longer.
“Maddening,” said Kokonowski. “That ruling is absolutely maddening.” He explained that, under the Commonwealth v. Lougee ruling, none of the jail time under COVID “counts” toward the limits normally imposed on detainment, meaning detainment could theoretically be extended as long as the pandemic lasts. “It’s draconian,” he added.
In fact, there are no clearly established limits to these extensions, and the SJC rejected a due process argument that pointed out the pandemic could last months, if not years, past the summer, thus delaying trials to an unreasonable extent. According to Duncan, in June, “the Court decided that argument was premature, and might not need to be addressed if trials resume in September.” Now that trials have been delayed until at least Oct. 23, Duncan believes it is likely that the argument will reach the SJC a second time.
According to the Vera Institute of Justice, as of 2019, approximately two-thirds of all those held in jails across the country are such pretrial detainees. Research conducted and compiled by the Institute also suggests that pretrial detention is disproportionately harmful to defendants. In a study on the effects of pretrial detention, researchers Léon Digard and Elizabeth Swavola wrote, “even short periods of detention may make people more likely to become involved with the criminal justice system again in the future.” They added that detainees are also “more likely to be convicted and to receive harsher sentences.”
It is unclear if or how the lasting effects of detainment are worsened by COVID-19, but its spread alone is a large enough concern for many attorneys and local activists.
Though Kokonowski declined to comment on the specifics of Hachiyanagi’s case, he said, “I’m concerned about everybody who’s in jail.”
When asked for comment, Mount Holyoke Director of News and Media Relations Christian Feuerstein said, “The College has no comment on this situation except to say that we are cooperating fully with law enforcement agencies in support of their ongoing investigations. Rie Hachiyanagi has been placed on administrative leave from Mount Holyoke College and is not permitted on our campus.”
Meanwhile, it appears likely that Hachiyanagi will remain in jail, at least until her next scheduled court appearance in November. By that time, she will have been incarcerated nearly a full year.