Thousands of Massachusetts Drug Cases to Be Dismissed After Lab Scandal

Thousands of Massachusetts Drug Cases to Be Dismissed After Lab Scandal
Annie Dookhan, a former chemist at the Hinton State Laboratory Institute, stands beside her lawyer Nick Gordon (L) during her arraignment at Brockton Superior Court in Brockton, Massachusetts on Jan. 30, 2013. REUTERS/Jessica Rinaldi
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BOSTON—Close to 20,000 Massachusetts criminal drug cases are set to be dismissed because of a scandal involving a former state chemist who admitted faking tests, civil liberties activists and prosecutors said on Tuesday.

It will mean the largest number of drug cases tossed out in U.S. history due to one person, according to the American Civil Liberties Union. Rogue chemist Annie Dookhan pleaded guilty in 2013 to tampering with evidence during her nine years working at a state crime lab in Boston. The scandal shook the foundation of the state’s criminal justice system.

The Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court in January ordered prosecutors across the state to dismiss the vast majority of convictions tied to that lab, where Dookhan identified evidence as illegal narcotics even without testing it, in an effort to make herself seem more efficient.

“Today is a major victory for justice and fairness, and for thousands of people in the commonwealth who were unfairly convicted of drug offenses,” said Matthew Segal, legal director of the ACLU of Massachusetts, which represented many of the defendants during the appeal process.

FILE PHOTO: Annie Dookhan, a former chemist at the Hinton State Laboratory Institute, listens to the judge during her arraignment at Brockton Superior Court in Brockton, Massachusetts on Jan. 30, 2013. (REUTERS/Jessica Rinaldi)
FILE PHOTO: Annie Dookhan, a former chemist at the Hinton State Laboratory Institute, listens to the judge during her arraignment at Brockton Superior Court in Brockton, Massachusetts on Jan. 30, 2013. REUTERS/Jessica Rinaldi