Bulletin: Annie Dookhan: Massachusetts; Court rules: Defendants who were convicted with tainted evidence from the William Hinton State Drug Laboratory will be able to challenge their convictions or withdraw guilty pleas without fear of harsher sentences - but Court refuses American Civil Liberties motion to vacate the sentences of all prisoners connected to the Annie Dookhan scandal at the drug lab.

"Defendants who were convicted with tainted evidence from the William Hinton State Drug Laboratory will be able to challenge their convictions or withdraw guilty pleas without fear of harsher sentences, the Massachusetts Supreme Court Judicial Court ruled Monday. But justices on the court declined to grant another motion, by the American Civil Liberties Union, to vacate the sentences of all prisoners connected to the Annie Dookhan scandal at the drug lab. Dookhan, a former chemist at the lab, is serving at least three years in prison after pleading guilty to faking test results in thousands of cases. Since the crisis broke, Dookhan’s actions have raised questions about the legitimacy of convictions. Under the ruling by the SJC, prosecutors would be unable to seek new charges against defendants who file for a new trial, or even reintroduce charges that were dropped as part of a plea agreement. Doing so, the court wrote, would amount to “giving the Commonwealth a second bite at the proverbial apple in its efforts to convict the petitioners. Instead, the Commonwealth must be held to the terms of its plea agreements.” Matthew Segal, the legal director for the ACLU of Massachusetts, praised the decision. “People were convicted in violation of due process,” he said. “Their convictions were tainted, and they were too afraid to speak up about it in court.”

http://www.wbur.org/2015/05/18/sjc-govt-ruling-dookhan-defendants