News & Commentary

Yesterday, the New York Times Editorial Board wrote an excellent piece on capital punishment, asserting that any state with the death penalty has a system “warped with injustice and absurdity.”

Lately, it seems that not a week goes by that there isn’t some news from Ferguson, MO. Sadly, the news this morning was of more bloodshed. Last week, it was the scathing report issued by the Justice Department finding that Ferguson law enforcement engaged in a pattern of biased policing and that municipal courts in the city were operating in a corrupt manner, using their judicial authority to compel payment of fines in order to fill the city’s coffers. Not surprisingly, communities of color were disproportionately more likely to be impacted by these fines.

Monroe Freedman passed away last week. He was 86 years old. Freedman was a giant in the field of "legal ethics," as a scholar, a teacher, and a lawyer. As his obituary in the NY Times discusses, he life's work was an exploration of the meaning of "zealous advocacy." In particular, Freedman was concerned with the responsibility of the criminal defense attorney, who is often the only line of defense between an individual and a government with vast resources. Should a defense attorney attempt to undermine the credibility of an opposing witness when he knows the witness is telling the truth? Should a defense attorney allow his client to testify when he believes that the client will commit purjury?

Last year I blogged about two State-of-the-State addresses: one by Maine's Governor LePage and the other given by Governor Shumlin of Vermont. Both Maine and Vermont have seen a drastic rise in heroin use rates; while Governor LePage trotted out disproven and antiquated drug war rhetoric, Governor Shumlin garnered national attention for calling for a new progressive health-based approach to combating addiction and pledged state money to expanding treatment options. 

What do the ACLU of Maine, the chief justice of Maine's Judicial Branch, and the LePage administration have in common? We all know it's time to reform Maine's pretrial system.

“We know that right now that the struggle freedom and justice is real; we live in the most incarcerated country in the world. There are more black men under correctional control today than under slavery in 1850.” And he is right. One look into our criminal justice system, and it is clear that the fight for racial justice and equality in America is far from over. While black people make up just 13 percent of the U.S. population, they account for almost half of the 2.23 million people incarcerated in this country. One in every three black men will see the inside of prison cell at some point during his life; at any given point, more than 40 percent of prisoners on death row are black.Due to collateral consequences, th

Update (2/19/2015): Check out this great editorial from the Bangor Daily News on Maine's debtors' prisons. From the editorial:

Yesterday, I had my first public hearing of the session, fittingly on a First Amendment issue. And, because the bill creates a new crime, I found myself in front of the Criminal Justice committee - which may turn out to be my home away from home for the next few months. The bill, LD 43, was modeled after the federal Stolen Valor Act of 2013 and would create a new class E crime for false claims of military service.

This morning, I re-watched a Democracy Now segment featuring Canadian doctor and addiction specialist Gabor Mate. In the segment, Amy Goodman asked Dr. Mate about his thoughts on the use of the criminal justice system to address drug addiction. He responded: