What comes next after ruling determines Maine is violating people’s Constitutional rights
By Marie Weidmayer, Bangor Daily News Staff
The state of Maine is violating people’s Constitutional rights by not providing them lawyers in a timely fashion, a March 7 court ruling said. But how the decision will remedy the crisis in the long term remains unclear.
Maine has until April 3 to present a plan about how it plans to fix the ongoing Sixth Amendment violations, according to the ruling from Kennebec County Superior Justice Michaela Murphy. The ruling also dictates that charges against people without representation must be dismissed after a period of time.
The ruling concerns the Maine Commission on Public Defense Services, which is tasked with providing lawyers to indigent defendants, or people who cannot afford a lawyer. The state has failed to provide that legal counsel in a timely fashion.
It comes after a class action lawsuit was filed more than two years ago by the American Civil Liberties Union of Maine. Under the new ruling, people will be released from jail after 14 days without a lawyer and charges will be dismissed after 60 days.
The charges can be refiled once the Maine Commission on Public Defense Services is able to provide a lawyer.
But questions remain about what exactly the ruling means for people without representation, and how it will fix the root of Maine’s problem. Here’s what we know about the ruling at this time.
What comes next?
The Maine Commission on Public Defense Services is holding an emergency meeting on March 17. No agenda for the meeting is posted as of Friday afternoon.
It’s unclear if the state will appeal Murphy’s decision. The Maine attorney general’s office does not comment on pending litigation, spokesperson Danna Hayes said.
State law provides 21 days for a party to appeal a court decision.
A written plan on how the state plans to stop the Six Amendment violations must be submitted to the court by April 3. The state must also make “good faith efforts” to provide lawyers to people who need them.
A court hearing is scheduled for April 7, where the future of detention proceedings will be mapped out, according to the court order. People who are incarcerated will be at the front of the line when hearings begin.
Both the people waiting for lawyers and the state of Maine need to have created and agreed to a list of all people who are in a Maine jail or other correctional facility and waiting for counsel. It must include the names and physical location of those people, the court order said.
Hearings must be scheduled at several locations throughout Maine in April where the court will determine if the defendants are people affected by the lawsuit and if the commission has made that good faith effort to find them a lawyer.
A person may be released from jail or have charges dismissed if the court determines someone does not have a lawyer despite those efforts.
If someone does not have a lawyer after 14 days, they are released from jail unless a lawyer is found within seven days, the order said. However this does not mean they all will be released from jail immediately, as some people are in federal custody, have a bail they must post or have been denied bail.
Charges can be dismissed after 60 days unless a lawyer is found after an additional seven days, according to the order.
How many people in Maine need a lawyer?
As of March 14, 514 adult criminal cases are in need of a lawyer, and in 91 of those cases someone is already in custody. There are 82 people incarcerated without an attorney, according to the running list from the Maine Commission on Public Defense Services.
Of those 82 people, 11 are being held without bail, two people are in prison on other sentences, one person is in federal custody, and one person is in custody of U.S. Immigrations and Customs Enforcement. It’s unknown how many people have bail set but may not be able to afford to post it.
Nearly every case on the list has been added since Feb. 5, meaning that April 6 will be the soonest those people will be eligible to have their charges dropped after 60 days without a lawyer under this new ruling. Criminal charges filed against these people range widely, from operating a vehicle with a suspended license, to domestic violence to drug trafficking.
Will this solve the lawyer shortage?
This order will likely fix the ongoing Constitutional violations but will not solve the underlying issue because Maine doesn’t have enough lawyers, judges and judicial staff, District Attorney Natasha Irving said.
Irving, who represents Sagadahoc, Lincoln, Knox and Waldo counties, has to make decisions about what charges are filed compared with what the state legislature has set as law. There are some things, like small thefts from Walmart, that can be charged as a felony. Once someone is charged with a felony or there is a potential of jail time, a defense lawyer must be appointed.
“Those things cost money,” Irving said. “There are constitutional rights involved here and there’s public safety involved here and it’s just not been funded. It is a problem.”
What problems could arise from this ruling?
The Maine Prosecutors Association wants defendants to have lawyers as quickly as possible so the cases can move through the court system, Penobscot County District Attorney Chris Almy said.
If the commission fails to provide lawyers, “there are dozens of serious domestic violence offenders now in jail and drug traffickers now in jail who would be released,” Almy said.
He said he’s also concerned defense lawyers “may feel obligated to decline taking cases,” because not having legal representation “would enhance the ability of their prospective clients to get their cases dismissed or be released from jail.”
That theory makes no sense, Maine Indigent Defense Center founder Robert Ruffner said. At the very least, lawyers who take on indigent defense cases need to continue to do so if they want to make money.
“The attorneys I know are working very hard doing this work,” Ruffner said. “We all live in Maine as well. These are our communities. The idea that we’re not taking cases because we want to see people get released is just nonsensical.”
How have other states handled similar rulings?
Oregon has a similar order in place, however its timelines are much shorter. People are released from jail after seven days without a lawyer, compared with what will likely be 21 days in Maine.
Oregon has about three times the population of Maine, but both states have roughly the same amount of people waiting in jail without a lawyer, the order said.
“It is fair to say that the situation in Maine is two or three times worse than the situation in Oregon for incarcerated unrepresented defendants,” it continued.
Massachusetts enacted a similar law in 2004, where people were released from custody after seven days without a lawyer and charges were dismissed after 45 days without a lawyer. It helped with the shortage, which then recurred in 2020.
By ensuring the protocol established in 2004 was followed, the shortage was fixed by 2022.
Maine’s order doesn’t appear to be as simple as Oregon’s, which means the practical impacts of the order are hard to explain at this time.
“Hell if I know,” Ruffner said when asked. “It’s not as simple as Oregon, or at least how we understand what the decision in Oregon [was].”