By the numbers: The toll of the Annie Dookhan scandal

A special court session in July 2013 at Suffolk Superior Court handled motions by drug defendants whose cases were affected by the actions of chemist Annie Dookhan.Pat Greenhouse/Globe Staff/File

At least 20,000 defendants affected

An August 2013 report commissioned by the administration of then-Governor Deval Patrick pegged the number of criminal defendants affected by chemist Annie Dookhan’s mishandling of drug evidence at 40,323.

Others have argued since then that attorney David Meier, who wrote the report, overstated the number of cases because of the method he used to count them.

Prosecutors said last year that they believe the actual number to be closer to 20,000. District attorney’s offices are in the process of drafting lists of each defendant affected by the Dookhan case.

Hundreds of defendants released

As of March 2014, 933 defendants statewide had challenged the evidence in their cases, and about 500 had been released from state prison, officials said at the time.

More recent data was not available Tuesday.

$19.3 million in Mass. taxpayer dollars spent

The Legislature in fiscal year 2013, established the $30 million Hinton Lab Reserve Fund to address anticipated demands on the state’s criminal justice system because of the Dookhan crisis.

According to the state comptroller’s office, $19.3 million had been spent from that fund as of Tuesday.

2-plus years in prison

In November 2013, Dookhan was sentenced to serve 3 to 5 years in state prison after she pleaded guilty to 27 counts of misleading investigators, filing false reports, and tampering with evidence during her nine years working as a chemist at the state drug lab.

She was recently granted parole and is no longer behind bars.

Annie Dookhan left the probation department at Suffolk Superior Court in December 2012.John TlumackiGlobe Staff/File