Maine Legislature weighs changes to criminal defense system for the poor Share Updated: 9:45 PM EDT Mar 31, 2021 Share Updated: 9:45 PM EDT Mar 31, 2021
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Show Transcript Kennebec and Somerset County District Attorney Megan Maloney says her job is not putting criminals away. My job is justice, which includes making sure people her office prosecutes have decent lawyers. If everyone is not fairly represented, then we are not doing our job to be fair to everyone. It troubles her that Maine is the only state without a public defender system, full time criminal defense offices for the poor paid for with public funds. So I d be happy to be the place where we begin to make that change. Setting up a pilot public defender s office is part of the reforms pushed by state representative Jeffrey Evangelos. We have to get up to speed with what s happening in the rest of the country that s using public defender offices of We have to pay our attorney
James Howaniec: Get politics out of Maine’s indigent defense system
It is time to get politics out of the constitutional right of everyone especially the poor to an attorney when charged with a crime. It is one of the most basic rights afforded to citizens in a society that endeavors to call itself free.
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James Howaniec
I have been practicing criminal law in Androscoggin County for some 35 years. During that time, other criminal defense lawyers and I have represented thousands of Maine’s most desperately poor in local courts. We have done our job exceedingly well perhaps too well, as powers that be in Augusta and Portland, year after year, unconstitutionally attempt to defund our small budget.
The temporary director of Maine’s public defense agency likened his first month on the job to a doctor performing “triage” as he has tried to restore financial and operational integrity to a fraught state agency.
Justin Andrus intended to reopen his private law practice late last year, but instead was asked to help the Maine Commission on Indigent Legal Services, or MCILS, get back on track. It’s been one month since he joined as interim executive director of the agency responsible for training and supervising private lawyers who defend the poor against criminal charges and other legal matters on behalf of the state.
Watchdog report says Maine’s legal defense program for the poor lacks oversight, organization
The Legislature s accountability office released the first part of its report on Maine s program Monday.
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A state watchdog agency has concluded that Maine’s system for providing legal services to the poor has little organizational structure, lacks oversight and does not have established policies for attorney billing.
The Maine Commission on Indigent Legal Services has been under scrutiny as lawyers and legislators alike call for reform, and this new report will likely bolster those efforts.
“I definitely think that this report has really put the commission and its staff on notice that the status quo is no longer acceptable,” said state Sen. Justin Chenette, one of the lawmakers who asked for this investigation.
Impasse on funding leaves legal services for Maine s poor in limbo pressherald.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from pressherald.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.