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Oregon sued over failure to provide public defenders

FILE - Carl Macpherson, executive director at Metropolitan Public Defender, examines the file in a double murder case that was recently pushed back for trial in his office in Portland, Ore., on May 5, 2022. (AP Photo/Gillian Flaccus, File)

FILE - Public defender Drew Flood with the nonprofit law firm Metropolitan Public Defender looks his files for the criminal cases he is currently working on in Portland, Ore., on May 5, 2022. (AP Photo/Gillian Flaccus, File)

Courtroom notes showing that a Washington County, Ore., judge threatened to hold Oregon Public Defense Services in contempt of court for not providing a public defender to a criminal defendant are seen in this May 4, 2022, photo. The defendant in this case is charged with rape, sodomy and other sexual crimes and was finally assigned a public defender this week after weeks without one, prompting the judge's action. A post-pandemic glut of delayed cases has exposed shocking constitutional landmines impacting defendants and crime victims alike in Oregon, where an acute shortage of public defenders has even led judges to dismiss serious cases. (AP Photo/Gillian Flaccus)

Oregon sued over failure to provide public defenders