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Annie Dookhan's falsification of drug lab tests has become a reason for over 21,000 people to celebrate. Massachusetts will drop 21,587 cases in the largest single dismissal of convictions in U.S. history:
Massachusetts formally dropped more than 21,000 tainted drug convictions Thursday that were linked to a disgraced state chemist who in 2013 admitted to faking test results.
It's the largest single dismissal of convictions in U.S. history, according to the American Civil Liberties Union.
Thursday's dismissals by the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court had been expected after several district attorneys on Tuesday submitted lists of 21,587 cases they said they would be unwilling or unable to prosecute, The Associated Press reports.
Previous Coverage:
Massachusetts: Tens of Thousands of Drug Convictions to be Overturned After Fraudulent Lab Tests.
(Score: 5, Insightful) by Runaway1956 on Saturday April 22 2017, @02:16AM (4 children)
This wasn't a case of one individual cheating and falsifying tests. The SYSTEM accepted, and even rewarded, her conduct.
I went into the Navy when drug testing was just beginning. Initially, you peed in a bottle, your name was put on the bottle, the bottle went off somewhere, and the results came back. It wasn't hard to tamper with the samples, if you were either a corpsman, or you were a corpsman's buddy or something. I got a result back that had stuff in it that I never even HEARD OF!!
There were enough false positives, that the military went to using TWO bottles per sample, both marked with identities. A positive result was routinely challenged, and if the matching sample was clean, then that false positive was dismissed as bogus.
In forensics - is there any checking? A single sample sent to a lab is "tested", and used as "evidence"? There is no opportunity to challenge the result? No second sample to go back to? Where and how does the system self-check itself?
Is Mass making changes to the SYSTEM, or is it merely trying to correct a personnel error? If/when the state sends it's forensic evidence to two or more labs, to be independently tested by at least two lab technicians, then the system might be considered "reliable".
There will be times when there isn't enough of a sample to divide into two samples. Those instances should be inherently less convincing in court, than those cases where two independent labs find the same results.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday April 22 2017, @02:36AM (3 children)
System works fine for lynching black people. It's not for justice.
(Score: 2) by Runaway1956 on Saturday April 22 2017, @02:44AM (1 child)
So, stand up and insist the system be fixed. If that's the best you can do, maybe you need to be lynched.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday April 22 2017, @05:30AM
The system is beyond fixing at this point. Do you think people like Sessions will listen to people standing up and insisting the system be fixed?
You're on the side of justice today, but I've seen enough posts to know that your moments of clarity do not last long.
All it takes is for something to (1 frame flash #MAGA) get your authoritarian follower side going, and you'll post just about the polar opposite of what you just wrote.
Please hang on to this moment of clarity.
(Score: 2) by kaszz on Saturday April 22 2017, @11:57AM
Is there any data to support that she made tests for black people falsely positive more often than for other groups?