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US-MASSACHUSETTS-DRUGS
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FIE PHOTO: Dookhan, a former chemist at the Hinton State
Laboratory Institute, stands beside her lawyer Gordon during her
arraignment at Brockton Superior Court in Brockton,
Massachusetts
FILE PHOTO: Annie Dookhan, a former chemist at the Hinton State
Laboratory Institute, listens to the judge during her
arraignment at Brockton Superior Court in Brockton,
Massachusetts
It will mean the largest number of drug cases tossed out in U.S.
history due to one person, according to the American Civil
Liberties Union. Rogue chemist Annie Dookhan pleaded guilty in
2013 to tampering with evidence during her nine years working at
a state crime lab in Boston. The scandal shook the foundation of
the state's criminal justice system.
The Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court in January ordered
prosecutors across the state to dismiss the vast majority of
convictions tied to that lab, where Dookhan identified evidence
as illegal narcotics even without testing it, in an effort to
make herself seem more efficient.
"Today is a major victory for justice and fairness, and for
thousands of people in the commonwealth who were unfairly
convicted of drug offenses," said Matthew Segal, legal director
of the ACLU of Massachusetts, which represented many of the
defendants during the appeal process.
"The victims of this crisis waited far too long for justice. It
shouldn't have taken years of litigation by the ACLU, public
defenders, and pro bono lawyers to address this stain on the
Commonwealth's justice system," Segal said.
Prosecutors in Massachusetts' Suffolk County, which includes
Boston, said on Tuesday they had opted to stand by the
prosecution of just 1.5 percent of the cases they had brought
involving Dookhan.
"The average defendant has more than 60 entries on his record,"
County District Attorney Daniel Conley said, referring to the
cases his office would still pursue. "They are neither low-level
nor non-violent, and they stand at the intersection of drugs and
violence."
Those cases also rely on evidence not linked to the
now-shuttered lab where Dookhan worked, Conley said.
(Reporting by Scott Malone; Editing by Peter Cooney)
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