Murder trials, other Oahu court cases with multiple defendants halted due to COVID-19

Prosecutions of homicide cases on Oahu — and trials involving multiple defendants — are not moving forward because of COVID-19 limits, Chief Justice Mark Recktenwald told a joint session of the state Legislature Wednesday.

“We simply cannot conduct as many jury trials as we could before the pandemic, particularly here on Oahu given the space limitations in our courtrooms,” Recktenwald said in his annual State of the Judiciary address. “With our current budget restraints, renting larger spaces is cost-prohibitive.”

Just on Oahu, Recktenwald said that 2,200 criminal jury trials are pending, along with “many hundreds more on the neighbor islands.”

At the same time, Oahu’s District Courts have received over 60,000 criminal citations for misdemeanor violations of pandemic emergency orders. By comparison, there were only 20,000 criminal citations in First Circuit Court the year before.

“In our district civil courtrooms, we are facing a coming surge of residential eviction cases when the moratorium on evictions expires,” Recktenwald said.

“Indeed, the demand for our services will only increase as criminal trials return to full speed, emergency order citation cases make their way through the system, eviction matters resume and as other impacts of the pandemic, such as increases in domestic violence and sex trafficking, become even more evident,” Recktenwald said.

He listed innovations last year that expanded access to judicial proceedings in response to in-person restrictions related to COVID-19.

“This transformation has made us more accessible to the public, and will undoubtedly shape the way we do business in the future,” he said.

Changes include:

>> “We have gone from essentially no use of Zoom or WebEx in March, to conducting more than 128,000 cases on those platforms statewide between August and December,” Recktenwald said. “… Many people welcome the convenience of appearing remotely, rather than coming into a brick and mortar courthouse. We are, in effect, creating the courts of the future, courts that are more responsive to the needs of a community accustomed to doing business online.”

>> “Since the pandemic began, the Hawai‘i Supreme Court has conducted 17 oral arguments remotely,” Recktenwald said. “It can be difficult for members of the public to come to our courthouse in downtown Honolulu, but remote technology made the court more accessible. In one case from Maui, close to 500 people tuned in to oral argument, giving the community most directly affected increased access to the process.”

>> “In many courtrooms across the state, trials and other court proceedings are now accessible to the public via video conferencing platforms.”

>> “Many people don’t have access to the internet or other tools needed to participate in court hearings remotely. We have taken huge strides to ensure access to our virtual courtrooms by, for example, creating a guide to online access and a map of free Wi-Fi hotspots, and opening a remote hearing kiosk in the Supreme Court Law Library.”

>> “Our six self-help centers across the state provide free legal information to those who cannot afford an attorney in civil cases. After briefly closing during the early days of the pandemic, the self-help centers reopened remotely and have served more than 1,400 people since May, at little to no cost to the public.”

But criminal defendants have the constitutional right to be present in the courtroom and confront witnesses, Recktenwald said.

“Restarting jury trials has been critical, since large backlogs developed while they were suspended,” he said.

Recktenwald said 13 jury trials have been completed on Oahu, in addition to one each on Maui and Hawaii island.

He implored lawmakers and Gov. David Ige not to make additional cuts to the Judiciary, which saw a 5.3% budget cut at the end of the last fiscal year and an 8.6% budget reduction in the current fiscal year.

At the same time, the Judiciary’s workforce has shrunk by 6.5% in little more than year.

“We’ve also had to reduce funding by more than $3 million dollars statewide for programs that help some of the most vulnerable members of the community, such as services for victims of domestic violence, and other programs that help keep our community safe, including substance abuse testing and mental health services for criminal defendants,” Recktenwald said.

“… In short, we were already a lean operation before the pandemic hit, and are even more so now,” he said.

Recktenwald requested “no increases but no further reductions and a capital improvements budget that allocates modest resources towards shovel-ready projects that will stimulate the economy and keep our buildings safe.”

In response to Recktenwald’s address, House Speaker Scott Saiki said:

“Senate President (Ron) Kouchi and I know that you, Chief Justice and the entire Judiciary team, have been under considerable pressure to adapt to pandemic conditions. We appreciate your work and the work of the entire Judiciary team, all of the judges and all of the employees for your commitment and hard work over the past year.”

“The Legislature has the utmost respect for Chief Justice Recktenwald,” Saiki said. “We have seen him work throughout this pandemic. We know that he is an honorable judge and leader of the Judiciary and we look forward to working with him and his team throughout this pandemic and going forward.”