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Convict freed in Mass. crime lab scandal

Thousands of drug convictions may be at issue

In what may signal a wave of such actions, a judge ordered the release from prison Wednesday of a convicted drug dealer 2½ years early because evidence in his case was handled at a troubled state crime laboratory.

Superior Court Judge Paul Troy vacated the conviction of David Danielli after learning that 500 suspected oxycodone pills Danielli allegedly possessed were tested by Annie Dookhan, a chemist at the state lab in Jamaica Plain. Dookhan’s alleged mishandling of drug ­evidence may have jeopardized thousands of cases, officials said.

Comments

And that single person might be the governor? 

These 'leaders' love the money and prestige that come with being head of some organization but they never actually 'lead'.  This guy does not have a clue how to properly run an organization.

The other shoe should drop soon: the civil damages lawsuits against the state for false imprisonment. Under the (relatively) new false imprisonment statute, every person who served even a day's time based on falsified drug certs will be able to make a claim. The total will add millions of claims on top of whatever it's going to take to fix the drug labs.

Replies

Oh Lord, you are so right.

Oh my God, read carefully. This mentally malformed crime lab technician may be responsible for putting (pause, as I take a deep breath) 3400 people in jail based on faulty evidence.

Good luck, Massachusets. The undesirable consequences of this agent's malfunction are enormous. Are you ready to fairly compensate 34000 inmates, presently and possibly wrongfully imprisoned?  Oh. I am looking forward to this or  will the media let it all fade into the setting sun?

I was advised that I and others  should not rush to judgment in this case but  wait for more facts to be established. I agree. I am open-minded but for the moment I can only comment on the facts so far presented to me by the Boston Globe.

 

Budgets for the drug lab were reduced. But budgets for corporate welfare were blossoming.  Deval Patrick (like the Republicans before him) has been giving away hundreds of millions of dollars to Liberty Mutual, Fidelity Investments, JPMorgan, Manulife, movie makers, Vertex Pharma, and other businesses that don't need taxpayer help, every year.  People's lives depend on this lab.  NOTHING depends on those tax breaks.  Except his campaign contributions, and his bogus claims of "job creation" -- which HE KNOWS are false.

So he had 500 oxys, plead guilty and still walks? Did he claim before trial that they were fake? Why does the test even matter? If they were counterfeit he still would be in the can.