by Samantha Hogan | March 17, 2020
AUGUSTA — Maine is reducing its jail population as the state aims to avoid potential exposure of staff and inmates to COVID-19, the illness widely known as coronavirus, inside its locked facilities. Maine’s judicial branch cancelled or postponed the majority of court...
by Samantha Hogan | February 27, 2020
Advisors to Maine’s public defense system were expected to finalize a package of reforms on Tuesday to share with state lawmakers next month but instead learned that they had missed a deadline to submit rule changes by more than five weeks, delaying major changes...
by Samantha Hogan | December 10, 2019
An investigation into how Maine pays private attorneys for defending the state’s poor was unanimously approved by the Government Oversight committee on Tuesday as lawmakers grapple with how to separate “actual overbilling” from billing errors uncovered in a series of...
by Samantha Hogan | November 26, 2019
Harold Mortimer stood in front of Judge Valerie Stanfill, accused of driving under the influence of alcohol for the second time in 2019. He met the lawyer standing beside him that morning and their conversation was brief: plead not guilty and get an attorney. Randy...
by Samantha Hogan | November 20, 2019
Defense attorneys, criminal justice advocates and former prisoners packed a marathon 6½-hour public hearing Tuesday at the State House to voice concerns about the effectiveness of the state’s current system to provide legal defense to Maine’s poor. The eight newly...
