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Gansler Backs Reversal of Legal Reprentation at Initial Bail Hearings

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ANNAPOLIS, Md. (AP) - Attorney General Douglas Gansler is urging Maryland's top court to overturn its decision that arrestees have a right to counsel at initial bail hearings.

The Daily Record reports that Gansler argues in papers filed Tuesday with the Court of Appeals that the court was wrong to hold that the due-process provision in Maryland's constitution requires defendants to be provided counsel at this pre-trial stage.

He says liberty is not directly at stake in an initial hearing, as it is in a bail review hearing before a judge and at trial, when counsel is constitutionally mandated, he added.

Next month, the high court will hear the state's arguments that a Baltimore judge, citing the high court's ruling, improperly ordered that attorneys be provided for indigent defendants at initial bail hearings.

Don Rush is the News Director at Delmarva Public Media. An award-winning journalist, Don reports major local issues of the day, from sea level rise, to urban development, to the changing demographics of Delmarva.