The long-running legal challenge over Maine's failure to provide attorneys to criminal defendants who can't afford them has reached the state Supreme Court. Arguments before the court today focused on whether the lower court has the authority to order defendants released from jail if they are not provided a lawyer.
Earlier this year Superior Court Justice Michaela Murphy ruled that the state was failing to meet its constitutional obligation to provide attorneys to indigent criminal defendants. She also decided to hold individual hearings, and if a defendant had not been appointed an attorney in 14 days, they would be released from jail. If no attorney was found in 60 days, the charges would be dismissed.
But attorneys for the Maine Commission on Public Defense Services and the Attorney General's Office said the Superior Court order is too broad, and the Law Court must step in.
"Immediate intervention is necessary because the superior court's order allows for release and dismissal of charges across Maine, including those accused of violent felonies, even when it could undermine justice, endanger public safety or contradict the law," said Paul Suitter, an assistant attorney general representing the State of Maine.
But Carol Garvan with the ACLU of Maine, which filed the lawsuit against the state more than two years ago, argued that the Superior Court does have the authority to hold hearings and order defendants released.
"There is no real dispute that Maine is failing to provide counsel to hundreds and hundreds of indigent defendants," she said. "As of the time of our trial, there were over 900 pending cases where people had no counsel. The average time that people had been without counsel was 66 days."
It's not clear when the Law Court will issue a ruling on the matter.
