The American Civil Liberties Union and the state’s public defender agency are asking the state’s highest court to release thousands of people convicted for drug crimes based on evidence tested by former state chemist Annie Dookhan, who has admitted to falsifying results over nine years.
Dookhan is currently under indictment, and the lab where she worked, a Department of Public Health facility at the Hinton Laboratory in Jamaica Plain, has been closed. The Patrick administration has estimated Dookhan’s alleged misdeeds affected 34,000 cases while the ACLU and the Committee on Public Counsel Services say as many as 190,000 cases should be dismissed.
Comments
Mr. Blodgett wants the SJC to recognize the harm done to communities when "convicted drug dealers" are let back on the street. He seems to be missing an important point: ALL of those convicted after testimony by Ms. Dookin were wrongfully convicted! That is, if she did what she is accused of doing. There is no way to know which of those convicted persons were actually engaged in criminal activity. Some of them were framed by an employee of the Commonwealth, thier lives derailed, possibly forever.
It is my opinion that Ms Dookin should be charged with mayhem, usually reserved for the most horrific crimes involving physical injury. To reach in and destroy the family lives of thousands is horrific itself.