Annie Dookhan: "Bad chemistry: A special report: WBUR takes a comprehensive look at "the Massachusetts drug lab crisis". Exellent perspective on the "ripple effects." Reporter Deborah Becker.

STORY: "Annie Dookhan and the Massachusetts drug lab crisis," by reporter Deborah  Becker, published by WBUR on May 19, 2013.

GIST:" In August 2012, Massachusetts officials closed the Hinton state drug lab in Jamaica Plain because a then-obscure chemist allegedly “failed to follow testing protocols” while testing drugs related to criminal cases. That chemist is no longer obscure: Annie Dookhan is now frequently mentioned by lawyers, judges, police and criminal defendants who refer to the cases she handled as “Dookhan cases......... The ripple effects of the potentially bogus testing are staggering for the criminal justice system and for the defendants. As authorities review the cases involved, they’re also considering cases where defendants received stiffer sentences because of previous offenses. Or cases where defendants risked or lost jobs, public housing, custody of their children, or deportation.
District attorneys have set up “war rooms” in their offices just so staffers can research and match the cases in which Dookhan tested the drug evidence. They’ve hired retired judges to preside over dozens of special court sessions to review each case and decide whether to release those incarcerated and/or hold new trials.........“Bad Chemistry” is WBUR’s chronicling of the drug lab, the chemist and the justice system’s turmoil; the turmoil will likely take years and tens of millions of dollars to unravel.
We will continue to publish and update the information as the story unfolds."

The entire story can be found at:

http://badchemistry.wbur.org/2013/05/19/annie-dookhan-and-the-massachusetts-drug-lab-crisis

See the WBUR editorial comment:"Still, a question persists: How big is (the) drug lab crisis?"  “The idea is that you should be blind testing,” said Anne Goldbach, director of forensic services for the Committee for Public Counsel Services, the state public defender agency. She says a chemist or anyone doing forensic testing should not know a defendant’s name or other specifics about a case. “You can tell that Annie Dookhan felt a sense of allegiance to the prosecution. That is unconscionable,” Goldbach said. National forensic experts say the same. Joe Bono, a forensic consultant and former president of the American Association of Forensic Sciences, says any state’s criminal justice system must make it clear that scientific testing of evidence is unbiased. “The job of a forensic scientist is not to put anybody in jail,” Bono said. “It’s not to provide biased information that can be used by one side or the other. It’s simply to report the information that’s found in the laboratory. When a scientist is communicating with an attorney on either side in such a way that that person’s ability to be objective is questioned, there’s a problem.”" The editorial comment can be found at:

http://badchemistry.wbur.org/2013/05/19/drug-lab-crisis-data
 

Keep your eye on "The Charles Smith Blog,"  dear reader. We are following the Annie Dookhan debacle.


PUBLISHER'S NOTE:

I have added a search box for content in this blog which now encompasses several thousand posts. The search box is located  near the bottom of the screen just above the list of links. I am confident that this powerful search tool provided by "Blogger" will help our readers and myself get more out of the site. 

The Toronto Star, my previous employer for more than twenty incredible years, has put considerable effort into exposing the harm caused by Dr. Charles Smith and his protectors - and into pushing for reform of Ontario's forensic pediatric pathology system. The Star has a "topic" section which focuses on recent stories related to Dr. Charles Smith. It can be found at:

http://www.thestar.com/topic/charlessmith

Information on "The Charles Smith Blog Award"- and its nomination process - can be found at:

http://smithforensic.blogspot.com/2011/05/charles-smith-blog-award-nominations.html

Please send any comments or information on other cases and issues of interest to the readers of this blog to: hlevy15@gmail.com

Harold Levy: Publisher; The Charles Smith Blog.