Maine Commission on Public Defense Services

The long-running lawsuit over Maine's failure to provide attorneys to indigent defendants was back before the state Supreme Court today. The question before the court now is if the suit can include the State of Maine as a defendant.

The Maine Commission on Public Defense Services has announced its new executive director, Frayla Tarpinian, who will lead the effort to address the major backlog of indigent criminal cases.

The bill passed with strong bipartisan support at a time when the state is under intense pressure to address a "constitutional crisis" within the indigent legal system. But Gov. Janet Mills — a former attorney general and prosecutor — has been skeptical that more money and positions is the answer.

The partial judgment, released last week, is the latest development in a more than two-year-old lawsuit alleging that Maine's indigent defense system is not providing adequate legal representation to low-income defendants.