The three-day trial over Maine's failure to provide adequate legal representation to low-income defendants concluded today in Kennebec County Superior Court.
The ACLU of Maine said the state's failure to appoint council early in the judicial process meets the standard of irreparable harm.
That's why it's asking Superior Court Justice Michaela Murphy to order the Maine Commission on Public Defender Services to provide counsel from the time a defendant is charged and then submit a plan to the courts for how it will implement that order.
But the ACLU is going even further, asking that any incarcerated defendant who is not appointed a lawyer within seven days be released, and those who don't get a lawyer within 45 days have their charges dismissed.
"Unfortunately, what we have now in Maine is the opposite of the public interest," said ACLU attorney Zachary Heiden. "We have a system where people feel pressured to plead guilty, whether or not they have committed the offense, because there is nobody there to help them and no timeline for when help will arrive."
But attorneys for the commission said that while the newly created public defender offices are the solution to this crisis, they will need more time to expand the system.
