Maine Supreme Court to Decide Whether State Must Release People without Lawyers From Jails

Maine supreme court to decide whether state must release people without lawyers from jails

A years-long lawsuit about the state’s requirement to provide people constitutionally mandated lawyers is now headed to the Maine Supreme Judicial Court. The state’s highest court said Friday it will take up the 2022 lawsuit brought by the American Civil Liberties Union of Maine against what is now the Maine Commission on Public Defense Services and the state of Maine about legal counsel for indigent defendants, or low-income people, who are ent…

State High Court Puts Hold on Releasing Defendants without Lawyers

PORTLAND — The Maine Supreme Judicial Court issued a stay June 20 on hearings that were to be held to determine whether people incarcerated awaiting trial should be released because the state had failed to provide them with a lawyer.

From Budget Chaos to Public Defenders: Mississippi Poised to Fund ‘Day 1’ Experiment

Indigent felony defendants in many counties have lacked court-appointed lawyers before indictment, even while they sat in jails for weeks or months.