COMMENTARY: "McGovern: System still failing in wake of Annie Dookhan," by Columnist Bob McGovern, published by the Boston Herald on June 2, 2016.
GIST: "The criminal justice system in Massachusetts is delicate if not unstable — and the next round in the Annie Dookhan drug lab scandal could toss napalm on this fragile ecosystem. That is, if someone finally decides what to do with the thousands of people who may not even know that they have a right to challenge their potentially flawed convictions. There were some whispers that yesterday’s hearing before Supreme Judicial Court Associate Justice Margot Botsford would be the end of this whole mess. There was talk that she would dismiss the 24,000 convictions that may have been tainted by Dookhan’s handiwork. But she didn’t. “I haven’t decided anything,” she told a room full of lawyers. “If somebody thinks I’ve decided to dismiss all of these cases — I haven’t, not by any stretch. I don’t know where that was coming from.” Instead, Botsford split the baby and left prosecutors, civil rights attorneys and defense attorneys frustrated. The ACLU and the state’s public defender’s office want to dismiss all the cases. State prosecutors want to send notice to every “Dookhan defendant” about their case and wait to see what the response is. Botsford didn’t do either. She decided that the full panel of SJC judges should hear the case in September and figure out what to do..........So what is there to do with this mess? Do you wipe the slate clean, or do you wait to see how many defendants show up for their day in court? Either way, thousands of people are living with potentially flawed convictions, and deal with the consequences every day. The system failed them once, and it appears there’s no easy answer on how to make it right.
The entire story can be found at:
http://www.bostonherald.com/news/columnists/bob_mcgovern/2016/06/mcgovern_system_still_failing_in_wake_of_annie_dookhan
See the related Boston Globe story at the link below; "A state investigator determined Dookhan was involved in testing drugs from more than 40,000 cases at the former Hinton laboratory in Jamaica Plain from 2003 to 2012. She admitted to submitting false reports and tampering with evidence and served prison time. Since the scandal broke, hundreds of so-called Dookhan defendants have successfully challenged their convictions."
https://www.bostonglobe.com/metro/2016/06/01/sjc-judge-ask-full-panel-hear-dookhan-case/HzVR4Dg2H8y5B6LqZWLg8J/story.html
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/
Information on "The Charles Smith Blog Award"- and its nomination process - can be found at:
http://smithforensic.blogspot.
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;
