The moment Boston state chemist is arrested for faking criminal drug test results casting doubt on 34,000 convictions
Annie Dookhan, 34, was led by police from her home in Franklin, Massachusetts about 40 miles southwest of Boston.
Dookhan’s alleged mishandling of drug samples prompted the shutdown of the Hinton State Laboratory Institute in the city last month and resulted in the resignation of three officials, including the state’s public health commissioner.
Failures: Disgraced chemist Annie Dookhan has thrown the verdicts of thousands of criminal trials in Massachusetts into doubt after she was accused of faking drug results
Flawed: Dookhan, 34, lied about having a master's degree in chemistry from the University of Massachusetts
State police said Dookhan tested more than 60,000 drug samples involving 34,000 defendants during her nine years at the lab. Defense lawyers and prosecutors are scrambling to figure out how to deal with the fall-out.
Since the lab closed, more than a dozen drug defendants are back on the street while their attorneys challenge the charges based on Dookhan’s misconduct.
Many more defendants are expected to be released. Authorities say more than 1,100 inmates are currently serving time in cases in which Dookhan was the primary or secondary chemist.
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/art...e-drug-tests-Massachusetts.html#ixzz2lOarFuzc
- Annie Dookhan tested more than 60,000 drug samples involving 34,000 defendants during her nine years at the lab
- Admitted identifying narcotics simply 'by looking at them'
- Dozens of drug defendants already back on the street because of her misconduct
- Dookhan lied about having a master's degree in chemistry
- One colleague said he never saw Dookhan in front of a microscope
Annie Dookhan, 34, was led by police from her home in Franklin, Massachusetts about 40 miles southwest of Boston.
Dookhan’s alleged mishandling of drug samples prompted the shutdown of the Hinton State Laboratory Institute in the city last month and resulted in the resignation of three officials, including the state’s public health commissioner.
State police said Dookhan tested more than 60,000 drug samples involving 34,000 defendants during her nine years at the lab. Defense lawyers and prosecutors are scrambling to figure out how to deal with the fall-out.
Since the lab closed, more than a dozen drug defendants are back on the street while their attorneys challenge the charges based on Dookhan’s misconduct.
Many more defendants are expected to be released. Authorities say more than 1,100 inmates are currently serving time in cases in which Dookhan was the primary or secondary chemist.
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/art...e-drug-tests-Massachusetts.html#ixzz2lOarFuzc