Rule 109 Subsequent Discovery of Fraud or Misrepresentation

Committee Advisory Note [December 2014]

The Rule mirrors the content of Rule 109 of the Maine Rules of Criminal Procedure.

[Advisory Notes to former Maine Rules of Criminal Procedure]

Advisory Note – March 2010

M.R. Crim. P. Part XIII and Rules 105-109. Rules 105 – 109 address the new statutory post-judgment relief mechanism for persons whose identities have been stolen and falsely used by another person in a criminal proceeding. See 15 M.R.S. §§ 2181-2184, enacted by P.L. 2009, ch. 287, § 1, effective September 12, 2009. For a thorough explanation of this new relief mechanism, see L.D. 1179, Summary (124th Legis. 2009). In essence, the new law provides a basis for relief when a person, claiming another person’s identity, has been convicted of a crime or civil infraction, and the person seeking relief had no knowledge that his or her identity was used by the convicted person. The new law is not a new post conviction remedy for persons who have appeared in court and been convicted after trial or plea and later seek to assert defects in the process that led to their identification or claim that an alternative suspect should have been pursued. The statutory amendments authorize post-judgment relief in a criminal proceeding or a civil violation or traffic infraction proceeding. Rules 105-109 address this post-judgment relief mechanism in the context of a criminal proceeding. Rule 60(b) of the Maine Rules of Civil Procedure provides general guidance in the context of a civil violation or traffic infraction proceeding.

Advisory Note—July 2010

M.R. Crim. P. 109. The amendment corrects a typographical error.