it was that eye that did it... 
Posted on 09/28/2012 8:13:35 PM PDT by nuconvert
-excerpt-
Annie Dookhan, 34, of Franklin, was arrested Friday in a burgeoning investigation that has already led to the shutdown of a state drug lab, the resignation of the state's public health commissioner and the potential upending of thousands of criminal cases.
(Excerpt) Read more at news.yahoo.com ...
Going to make lots of room in the jails.
Wonder what her motivation was.
Just a wild guess, but I’m wondering if political correctness isn’t at the heart of this disaster.
It’s reported she did it to appear to be efficient, thorough, dependable in her job. Not someone you’d want to drop during a layoff.
I’d be willing to bet there was monetary value somewhere in this “flap”
I get the impression from reading the article that they are awfully eager to let people out of jail, before this is close to being sorted out. They’ll never get them back, especially if their primary residence is over a border.
There was a ‘guesstimate’ I heard on a local station that some 750 to 1000 drug dealers would likely be released.
it was that eye that did it...
She apparently just wanted to look good. She claimed to have a masters degree and didn’t have one. Didn’t they check her credentials when they hired her? She forged the signature of coworkers and spiked negative samples with cocaine. She tested 1 out of 5 samples and called the untested samples positive. Employees told management and they ignored it. Wow.
I can't imagine how a person could get a fair trial which includes false evidence supplied by a state run lab. It would be impossible to sort out what evidence the jury believed and which they didn't, raising the possibility in EVERY case that the state lab results were relied upon in reaching a verdict. Upon what basis would an appeals court deny a re-trial?
I remember a flap in the FBI labs following 9-11, something about mishandling of evidence.
What the jury sees, the jury should severely question and challenge (naturally they are told that they cannot), but that’s the way to fight this.
They select juries based on ignorance then present “scientific” evidence, and it’s not much different from accepting the word of a shaman that the chicken guts show guilt.
I was once deselected in voir dire just because I was a scientist.
Don’t deny a re-trial, but don’t release the assumed perp! Wait until it can be shown that a re-test of stored evidence cannot prove guilt. By all means have a re-trial.
Appeals courts don't deal with the specific facts of a case, I believe, but concern themselves with whether the process carried out was consistent with conviction beyond a reasonable doubt. The appeals court isn't going to wait until some new evidence is created by the prosecution.
If the appeals court sets aside the conviction because of false evidence presented by the prosecution, then the situation reverts to that which existed prior to the conviction; that is, that the accused has the right to bail.
I would predict a great number of cases will simply be dismissed with the prosecution having to settle for time served. At some point the appeals court would have to decide that the prosecution has run out of time to provide a speedy trial. Cases which might be reasonable to pursue within a year of the crime might become very difficult to prosecute, say, three years after the crime. Witnesses die, disappear, retire, and may just become forgetful.
It also occurs to me that there could be more than just the 34,000 defendants involved. If Dookhan faked results that appeared to come from other lab techs, then all of the lab's results may come into question.
If the lab failed to vet Dookhan properly and failed to audit her results in order to reveal her mischief, then even results from before Dookhan might be questioned.
When any part of government is found to be lying in order to achieve convictions, it is, and should be, a very big deal.
Hey, now that is one hot chick!
I know a number of people working in Mass State Government jobs. You have no idea of how many of them talk about incompetent employees they work with, that somehow are able to continue working for the state. Some think that maybe these people have a politician “sponsoring” them (a common way of getting a state job), and they are “untouchable” so their supervisors look the other way and dod nothing. There are a lot of good employees but plenty of bad ones. Massachusetts government is often more like continuing criminal enterprise than a commonwealth.
...bystanders are similarly discomfited—you never know for sure which one to attempt contact with. Embarrassing and uncomfortable, and completely unnecessary if people like that would just stay home!!!
;^D
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