Over 21,000 drug cases, (21,587 drug cases) are about to be dismissed in the state of Massachusetts that were related to a former chemist who falsified evidence for years, according to the American Civil Liberties Union of Massachusetts. It is said to be the largest dismissal of wrongful convictions as a result of one case in U.S. history.
Carl Williams, a staff attorney for the ACLU, stated, “That is a victory for regular people, for people who’ve been tarnished by these drug convictions.”
According to CNN,
Investigators said she admitted to intentionally contaminating some samples to turn them from negative samples into positive samples. She also admitted to “dry labbing” in which she tested a few samples but reported the same results for multiple other samples.
Dookhan pleaded guilty in November 2013 to 27 criminal counts in all, including charges of perjury, evidence tampering and obstruction of justice. She was sentenced to 3 to 5 years in prison, and was released last year.
In all, the scandal cast doubt on drug-testing analyses in about 40,000 cases from 2003 to 2012. More than 20,000 convictions of those remained against so-called “Dookhan Defendants.”
Justice prevailed this time but the real crime is that Annie Dookhan is out of prison already after disrupting so many lives.
Besides serving time in prison, those convicted also dealt with missed employment opportunities, limited housing prospects, and, in some cases, threatened immigration status.
