Emergency legislation to shore up the state's public defender system is not winning support from civil rights advocates in Maine.
The bill would add 8 positions, including 5 experienced Assistant District Defenders who would handle the most challenging cases in a backlog of more than 1,100 cases still pending.
Zach Heiden, Chief Counsel of the ACLU of Maine, said the bill still leaves public defenders at a legal disadvantage.
"There are 8 DA offices and a fully staffed AG office. There are only 5 Public Defenders offices. You've under sourced one side of the equation of what is supposed to be a balanced adversarial process."
The bill would also empower a judge to appoint attorneys to defendants who cannot afford their own. Heiden and other opponents said those decisions should be left to the public defender system.
At a public hearing Wednesday Tina Nadeau, of the Maine Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers, said the problem with indigent legal defense isn't a lack of attorneys, but the backlog of cases.
"We have more than 6,000 cases pending today than we did before the pandemic. 5,500 of those cases have been covered by counsel. We have rolled up our sleeves and done the job. We need more funding and we need the case backlog to clear to resolve this crisis."
The Superior Court meanwhile, said some defendants awaiting trial awaiting trial could be released if they are not represented by April 7 but public safety will play a role in those decisions.
