An investigation by The Maine Monitor and ProPublica found that more than a quarter of Maine attorneys disciplined in the past decade for serious professional misconduct were hired as lawyers for the poor. Sex crimes and felony convictions were among the most severe infractions overlooked in the only state without public defenders. Defendants paid the price.
FEATURED STORY:
Judges, sheriffs ask Maine Supreme Court to dismiss petition filed by woman held in jail without a lawyer
Angelina Dube Peterson is indigent and unable to afford to hire her own lawyer. She waited for weeks in jail to be assigned an attorney.
Commission endorses statewide public defender network for Maine
Proposed expansion would cost $8.8 million and hire more than three dozen public defenders.
Maine’s indigent defense crisis deepens
Advocates complain that defendants are being denied lawyers or assigned attorneys who aren’t up to the job.
Civil rights board seeks Department of Justice investigation of Maine indigent defense services
Underfunded system negatively affects attorneys and indigent defendants in Maine, report says.
Justice rejects settlement to overhaul indigent defense in Maine
Justice Michaela Murphy says proposed agreement in ACLU’s lawsuit would not be “judicially enforceable."