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 The decision from the Supreme Judicial Court is the latest fallout
from one of the country's biggest crime lab scandals, in which
scientist Annie Dookhan tainted as many as 40,000 drugs cases at the
now-closed Hinton State Laboratory Institute by falsifying results.
Defendants who seek new trials "cannot be charged with a more
serious offense than that of which he or she initially was convicted
under the terms of a plea agreement and, if convicted again, cannot
be given a more severe sentence than that which originally was
imposed," the court's panel of justices said.
The American Civil Liberties Union of Massachusetts, which had asked
the court for measures to protect convicts seeking new trials from
retribution, applauded the decision. It had argued many convicts
were living with unearned criminal records because they were too
afraid to have their cases reopened.
"This decision tells them that they are not going to be punished for
challenging their conviction," said Matthew Segal, the legal
director of ACLU Massachusetts.
Dookhan pled guilty in 2013 to tampering with evidence at the Hinton
lab, where she worked from 2002-2011. She is serving a three-to-five
year prison sentence.
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Investigators have said her mishandling of evidence may have tainted
cases involving as many as 40,000 people, shaking the foundations of
the state's criminal justice system. Prosecutors estimate that about
20,000 of those cases resulted in convictions.
More than 300 people convicted of drug violations have been released
from prison as a result, and many others are seeking retrials.
(Reporting by Richard Valdmanis; Editing by Grant McCool)
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