Forged Drug Test Results May Free Tens of Thousands From Prison

[KamaAina]

http://countercurrentnews.com/2015/05/forged-test-results-may-free-tens-of-thousands-from-prison/

A recent Supreme Judicial Court ruling is expected to free tens of thousands from prison. Those who are expected to be impacted by Monday’s decision are those whose drug samples were “mishandled” in a way that produced thousands of “forged” results, leading to incarceration.

The justices ruled unanimously that in cases where defendants’ convictions were based on evidence tainted by the chemist, Annie Dookhan, new trials can be sought without additional charges or more severe sentences being slapped on them as a deterrent.

Local WCVB news in Boston explained that Dookhan had tampered with test results, along with repeatedly forging documents and wantonly testifing falsely in criminal cases. All of this went on for more than 14 years, while she worked for the state crime lab....

Matthew Segal, the legal director for the American Civil Liberties Union of Massachusetts praised the decision, saying that “it clears a path for people to challenge — when I say people, I say thousands, maybe tens of thousands of people — to challenge their convictions without fear that prosecutors will respond by seeking to revive harsher charges or harsher sentences that were relinquished in a plea bargain.”

[Jefferson23]

1. This is great but how fucked was that? "all this went on for 14 years...