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[KDR_11k]

Ruin so many lives and get three years.

No words.

That's white collar crime for you.

 

[BIGWORM]

Oh I'm pretty sure she's in hiding after being released from parole. I mean, 20k AND their families seriously affected by her falsification!?

Holy shit.

 

[Protome]

These people spent longer in prison after her conviction than she did.

What a shitshow.

 

[OG Shaka Zulu]

She did this due to economic anxiety. She was concerned lab jobs might go overseas and that's why she acted racist.

 

[Kevtones]

She's awful and should receive a greater sentence but lordy that system and those that set it up are backward. They deserve to be fired.


You never incentivize 'justice'.

 

[DiscoJer]

The drug war is really the most baffling thing in history, if you think about it.

Here in this country, in the 1800s, people were fine with the whole slavery thing and killing off the American Indians after screwing them with treaties that weren't honored. But you could do all the dope you wanted (and prostitutes, too, for that matter).

Now in more enlightened times, we've realized that slavery and genocide were bad things, but we'll happily lock up people up for years, even their whole life, for drugs.

I guess in a sense it's a reaction to abolition. If society can't enslave or kill people not like us, we can lock them up on ridiculous charges. But there's also a moral panic aspect to it, little different than the witch trials. There's always some drug that's an epidemic, but then if you look at it years later in the cold light of history, it actually wasn't.

 

[the_batman]

how do you live with yourself after destroying 20,000 lives?

 

[EdibleKnife]

how do you live with yourself after destroying 20,000 lives?

Same way you live with yourself after your first one: "This person is lesser and probably would have done something wrong anyway. Their life doesn't matter to me and it won't matter to anyone else."

 

[Miracle]

Same way you live with yourself after your first one: "This person is lesser and probably would have done something wrong anyway. Their life doesn't matter to me and it won't matter to anyone else."

Basically.

They don't look at them as human. Just a number/fodder.

 

[AbsolutBro]

Wow, why on earth would anyone do that? Holy crap.

The simple answer is that crime labs in the U.S. are grossly overworked and understaffed, while remaining under heavy and sometimes harsh time constraints. Not long ago the case against a rapist was dropped because the rape kit sat in the processing lab so long the statute of limitations passed.

I'm not excusing what happened, not in the slightest. It was a gross miscarriage of justice and she deserves more than the 3-5 years that she received.

 

[Angelus Errare]

I can get a longer sentence for having marijuana on me.

I just...

 

[sixteen-bit]

Only 3-5 years? Holy fuck.

that's an insult

 

[RS4-]

Fucking disgusting. All those lives ruined, and all she gets is 3-5.

Thanks America.

 

[LakeEarth]

She got out before most of her victims did? Fuck.

 

[kame-sennin]

But the logistics have to be unprecedented, right?

Why? You think she was just a "bad apple? FOH.

 

[Ninja Scooter]

Can the victims sue her directly or is she somehow protected? Hopefully one silver lining for the relatively lenient sentence is that those thousands of people can fucking nuke her to the Stone Age financially.

 

[cameron]

Dismissal of drug convictions formally approved today.

CBS/AP: "Court approves single largest dismissal of convictions in U.S. history"

BOSTON -- The highest court in Massachusetts has formally approved the dismissal of more than 21,000 drug convictions that were tainted by the misconduct of a former state drug lab chemist.

The American Civil Liberties Union of Massachusetts says the final order from the Supreme Judicial Court on Thursday marks the single largest dismissal of convictions in U.S. history.

“Today is a major victory for justice, fairness, and the tens of thousands of people who were wrongfully convicted based on fabricated evidence,” executive director Carol Rose said in a statement.

Other info:

Dookhan worked as a chemist at the Hinton State Laboratory Institute in Boston for nine years, testing more than 60,000 drug samples involving 34,000 defendants. Her arrest prompted the shutdown of the lab and the resignations of three officials. Nearly 200 inmates were released from prison within two months of Dookhan’s arrest.

Prosecutors said Dookhan admitted “dry labbing,” or testing only a fraction of a batch of samples and listing them all as positive for illegal drugs, to “improve her productivity and burnish her reputation.”

At the time of her arrest, authorities said the only motive they discovered was Dookhan’s desire to be seen as a good worker. Co-workers nicknamed her “superwoman” because her caseload was three times higher than average. A state investigation found Dookhan’s co-workers raised red flags about her work at several points prior to her arrest.

During a hearing prior to Dookhan pleading guilty, her lawyer Nicolas Gordon argued that she made a series of tragic mistakes and that her only motivation was to be “the hardest-working and most prolific and most productive chemist.”

Alternatively, she could've just as easily marked the results as negative and still would have been a "productive chemist" or whatever. She's human trash in every possible way.

 

[BobTheFork]

Can the victims sue her directly or is she somehow protected? Hopefully one silver lining for the relatively lenient sentence is that those thousands of people can fucking nuke her to the Stone Age financially.

I was wondering this. They have stated she is the specific cause of this. Seems like it would be a rock solid lawsuit.

 

[winjet81]

For those wondering, looks like MA law allows restitution, but only if the wrongfully convicted can present convincing evidence of their innocence. Less than 60ish individuals have gotten settlements from the state according to: https://eye.necir.org/investigations/wrongful-convictions-compensation/

What a crock of shit.

These people are still innocent until proven guilty, since the 'proof' of their mis-deeds is no longer valid.

How about it's up to the state to present other evidence of guilt, otherwise EACH victim is entitled to substantial compensation for their time in prison.

 

[Two Words]

Man, I have to imagine somebody is going to kill that woman. I mean, if you get 20,000 people wrongfully imprisoned and then you get out of jail that fast, it just seems like at least one of those 20,000 would be motivated to get revenge.

 

[bonesmccoy]

Don't have time to search - but what was her 'motivation' for all this?

Did she start falsifying results because of workload? Incompetence? Greed?

 

[Onlinehero]

My tax money paid this awful woman's salary and commission.

Ugh.

I believe the cost of jail upkeep, legal fees, lost working hours and worsened health status for 21.000 individuals dwarfs the impact of this woman's salary on your taxdollars by a quite substantial margin. I hope you payed A LOT of taxes!

“Today is a major victory for justice, fairness, and the tens of thousands of people who were wrongfully convicted based on fabricated evidence,” executive director Carol Rose said in a statement

That's one way to rebrand a judicial tragedy of astronomical proportion. (I mean I get what she's referring to, but this is a consequence, not a victory, of a case where justice and fairness had no influence whatsoever.)

 

[Aselith]

She did this due to economic anxiety. She was concerned lab jobs might go overseas and that's why she acted racist.

Did she act racist? This seems like someone just doing their job incorrectly?

 

[Slayven]

Did she act racist? This seems like someone just doing their job incorrectly?

Systematically., bet money the vast majority of these were black defendants because we know dispect drug use being higher amung whites, blacks are more prone to be stopped and searched by the police. And once you in the system all it takes is 1 or 2 people to say "meh they are here, they must have done something wrong" and a lot of shit gets swept under the rug

 

[entremet]

The drug war is really the most baffling thing in history, if you think about it.

Here in this country, in the 1800s, people were fine with the whole slavery thing and killing off the American Indians after screwing them with treaties that weren't honored. But you could do all the dope you wanted (and prostitutes, too, for that matter).

Now in more enlightened times, we've realized that slavery and genocide were bad things, but we'll happily lock up people up for years, even their whole life, for drugs.

I guess in a sense it's a reaction to abolition. If society can't enslave or kill people not like us, we can lock them up on ridiculous charges. But there's also a moral panic aspect to it, little different than the witch trials. There's always some drug that's an epidemic, but then if you look at it years later in the cold light of history, it actually wasn't.

Prison Industrial Complex explains it.

Always follow the incentives.

 

[The Albatross]

I mean, she ruined 20k lives and broke families. 2.5 years is ok for you?

So this has been a major issue in the state for ~5 years, when the story first broke. IT's not just a complete failure of the state lab tester, Annie Dookhan, but also up through the state infrastructure as she didn't have anybody above her checking these results.

I think she deserves more time in jail. But, It's worth it for accuracy, she didn't send 20,000 innocent people to jail or broke 20,000 families that wouldn't have been broken. Her research/conclusions was used as evidence in 20,000 cases that now have to be over-turned carte blanche because the evidence is now impermissible.

The result here is appropriate (over turn those decisions), but it's also double-edged. Not only will people who should be innocent get out of jail, but also thousands of legitimately dangerous people who should be in jail are having their cases thrown or or be retried are going to be set free. It's a massive fuckup by the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, and should be a lasting legacy for the Deval Patrick administration (but it won't).

The punishment of Dookhan is not enough, but also it's wrong that she's the only one receiving any punishment. The MA Dept. of Health and Human Services never investigated that she was processing five times the amount of cases she was supposed to be processing, her managers never investigated or double-checked her work, she often worked alone and not with any other staff. The state never flagged that her lab was producing quicker results even when lab chemists had to testify in court against suspects (which should dramatically increase the time to process results, but it did the opposite from her lab and her work). Even when she was hired, the state never did any due diligence in hiring her... She said she had a masters degree in Chemistry from Umass, and she didn't, yet the state never did a background check on that to verify even though degrees from Umass as administered by the state.

It's a massive fuckup throughout state government, it's cost tax payers millions, and helped convict innocent people of crimes that there wasn't enough evidence otherwise to convict.

 

[Frozenprince]

Prison Industrial Complex explains it.

Always follow the incentives.

It's not even that. Nixon himself when he began it explained that it was a purely political move. And there's no way out now. Think about how much of a boon we've made "tough on crime" into like it's the governor's job or a reps job to make sure more people are arrested.

It gets people from both sides of the aisle elected.

 

[Barzul]

So does their arrest history follow these released prisoners or is it expunged?

 

[enzo_gt]

3-5 years for destroying literally tens of thousand of lives, ripping families apart, and casting a shadow of doubt on many of those people for the remainder of their lives, what the FUCK.

 

[Mr. Blonde]

So this has been a major issue in the state for ~5 years, when the story first broke. IT's not just a complete failure of the state lab tester, Annie Dookhan, but also up through the state infrastructure as she didn't have anybody above her checking these results.

I think she deserves more time in jail. But, It's worth it for accuracy, she didn't send 20,000 innocent people to jail or broke 20,000 families that wouldn't have been broken. Her research/conclusions was used as evidence in 20,000 cases that now have to be over-turned carte blanche because the evidence is now impermissible.

The result here is appropriate (over turn those decisions), but it's also double-edged. Not only will people who should be innocent get out of jail, but also thousands of legitimately dangerous people who should be in jail are having their cases thrown or or be retried are going to be set free. It's a massive fuckup by the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, and should be a lasting legacy for the Deval Patrick administration (but it won't).

The punishment of Dookhan is not enough, but also it's wrong that she's the only one receiving any punishment. The MA Dept. of Health and Human Services never investigated that she was processing five times the amount of cases she was supposed to be processing, her managers never investigated or double-checked her work, she often worked alone and not with any other staff. The state never flagged that her lab was producing quicker results even when lab chemists had to testify in court against suspects (which should dramatically increase the time to process results, but it did the opposite from her lab and her work). Even when she was hired, the state never did any due diligence in hiring her... She said she had a masters degree in Chemistry from Umass, and she didn't, yet the state never did a background check on that to verify even though degrees from Umass as administered by the state.

It's a massive fuckup throughout state government, it's cost tax payers millions, and helped convict innocent people of crimes that there wasn't enough evidence otherwise to convict.

Good points here, but How much evidence would you say they had without the falsified tests?