Court Battle Over Tainted 'Dookhan Cases' Continues

BOSTON, MA — The messy fallout from "rogue chemist" Annie Dookhan's evidence tampering and document falsification continues to play out in Massachusetts, on Wednesday going before the State Supreme Judicial Court for what could be the last time.

The American Civil Liberties Union of Massachusetts is arguing the state should dismiss the estimated 24,000-plus cases impacted by Dookhan's actions, while prosecutors argue the remaining cases should each be addressed individually.

Dookhan admitted to tampering with drug samples in 2012 at the William A. Hinton State Laboratory Institute in Jamaica Plain, raising questions about the integrity of the testing performed at the lab.

Already, hundreds of defendants have successfully appealed their convictions based on Dookhan’s involvement in their cases, according to The Boston Globe.

Prosecutors on Wednesday argued that they have already been notifying defendants whose cases are connected to Dookhan through letters, which explaining the defendants' rights, The Boston Herald reports. According to the paper, the ACLU and public defenders say the notices are inadequate.

“It’s time to put an end to this,” the chief counsel of the Committee for Public Counsel Services, told the Herald Wednesday. “There are thousands of people out there who are still waiting for justice.”

Dookhan, meanwhile, has served her three-year sentence, and was released on parole this April.

Image via Patch archives