Earlier this year, we won an order requiring Maine to provide attorneys to people who cannot afford their own, just as the Sixth Amendment requires – but the state appealed. Now, we're heading to Maine's highest court in our fight to get the state to do its job.
This Tuesday, we're heading to the Maine Supreme Judicial Court in our fight to uphold the right to counsel for people who cannot afford their own attorney in our case Robbins v. State of Maine. Earlier this year, we won an order from the trial court requiring the state to provide attorneys and establish a plan to end this ongoing crisis – but the state appealed, putting solutions on hold.
The Constitution requires states to provide attorneys to people who have been charged with a crime and cannot afford their own, but Maine has been failing to meet that obligation for years.
At the time of our trial in January of this year, there were 991 pending criminal cases with no attorney, and 51 cases had been without counsel for over a year. As the trial court wrote in its landmark ruling, "The Plaintiffs in this case have not been convicted of the crimes for which they are charged. Each of them is still presumed to be innocent under the Maine and United States Constitutions. And yet many of them remain in custody, without counsel."
In a brief to the Law Court, we highlighted how the U.S. and Maine Constitutions require states to “provide effective representation through qualified and competent counsel consistent with the federal and state constitutions.” The brief argues that Maine’s “failure to satisfy this charge – first by providing inadequately-supervised lawyers, and later by not providing lawyers at all – led to this litigation.” It asserts that undisputed evidence, including the state’s own witnesses, “proved beyond cavil that [the Maine Commission on Public Defense Services] failed to fulfill” the Sixth Amendment’s guarantee of counsel and violates “well-established Supreme Court precedent.”
In another brief to the Law Court, we wrote that “the trial court properly ordered meaningful habeas remedies to address the State’s complete failure to provide counsel to hundreds of indigent criminal defendants as required by the Sixth Amendment.” In appealing the trial court’s order, “the State’s answer – sit tight, continue with the status quo, and maybe things will work themselves out – makes a mockery of the Sixth Amendment’s promise of a fair justice system,” the brief continued.
We look forward to continuing this effort at Maine's highest court – because access to justice should never depend on how much money a person has.
You can watch the arguments live on Tuesday, October 7, 10 a.m. You can also attend the arguments in person at Upper Kennebec Valley High School in Bingham. (Since 2005, the Law Court has held many arguments at high schools around the state so students and communities throughout Maine can see up close how the court works.)
