"The
Supreme Judicial Court will allow the ACLU to present arguments that
all of the 24,400 tainted drug lab cases involving disgraced state
chemist Annie Dookhan should be dismissed. Adriana Lafaille,
lawyer with the American Civil Liberties Union of Massachusetts, said
the court rejected the ACLU’s attempt at a “comprehensive solution” last
year, but relented to hearing an argument this November after learning
of the volume of cases yet to be processed. “To handle this many cases on a case-by-case
basis would completely cripple the justice system in Massachusetts. CPCS
(Committee for Public Counsel Services) said doing this case-by-case
would be disastrous,” she said. “We think all of these cases should be
dismissed.” The ACLU hired a data scientist to mine the records
for information about Dookhan’s cases and found 62 percent of the cases
were for possession, while 37 percent were for the more severe crime of
possession with intent to distribute. However, she said 90 percent of
the cases were handled by district court and were disposed of without an
indictment. She said 7 percent of the Dookhan cases wound up in
Superior Court. Sen. Bruce Tarr (R-Gloucester) countered that dismissing the cases is not in the interest of justice or public safety.........Dookhan — who worked at a state drug lab
running evidence in criminal cases between 2004 and 2010, pleaded guilty
to a 27-count indictment, that included charges of obstruction of
justice, perjury and tampering. The case has already put scores of drug
defendants back on the streets. Dookhan herself processed as many as
40,000 drug samples in that time. In November 2013, Suffolk
Superior Court Judge Carol Ball sentenced Dookhan to three to five years
at MCI-Framingham followed by two years’ probation."
http://www.bostonherald.com/news/local_coverage/2016/08/court_aclu_can_try_to_get_24400_drug_cases_tossed
http://www.bostonherald.com/news/local_coverage/2016/08/court_aclu_can_try_to_get_24400_drug_cases_tossed
