The executive directors of the nonprofit Center for Death Penalty Litigation and the state Office of Indigent Defense Services have swapped seats, so to speak.

The center this week announced that Malcolm 'Tye' Hunter is the new executive director after retiring from leading the indigent services office the past eight years, Dan Kane reports.

Hunter replaces Thomas Maher, who became executive director of the indigent services office last month.

The center represents death row inmates and assists lawyers who represent clients facing the death penalty in North Carolina.

Hunter has served on the Durham-based center's board of directors, and has a long history aiding death row inmates as a co-founder of the N.C. Resource Center and as the state's appellate defender. He successfully argued a 1990 case before the U.S. Supreme Court that resulted in new sentencing hearings for more than 40 prisoners on death row.

The N.C. Office of Indigent Defense Services will have a new executive director in December: veteran defense attorney Thomas Maher.

Maher replaces Tye Hunter, the office's founding executive director, who plans to retire then, reports Dan Kane. Since 2006, Maher has been executive director for the Center for Death Penalty Litigation in Durham. He is a 1982 graduate of UNC-Chapel Hill's law school and was admitted to the North Carolina bar in 1985.

"Tom Maher is perfectly situated by intellect, experience, and temperament to lead the Office of Indigent Defense Services," said Joseph B. Cheshire V, the chairman of the office's commission.

Lawmakers created the office in 2000 to oversee legal representation for indigent defendants and others who may be entitled to legal services under state law. Maher will make $123,022 a year.