SJC Dismisses More Than 21,000 Drug Cases Linked To Scandal

BOSTON – The state Supreme Judicial Court issued a final order today to dismiss 21,587 drug cases linked to disgraced former state chemist Annie Dookhan, according to the ACLU of Massachusetts.

“Today is a major victory for justice, fairness, and the tens of thousands of people who were wrongfully convicted based on fabricated evidence," ACLU of MA Director Carol Rose wrote in a press release.

"After four years of intense work, we are proud to have been a part of the single largest dismissal of wrongful convictions in the nation’s history, " she wrote .

District Attorneys in seven Massachusetts counties yesterday met a deadline imposed by the SJC by agreeing to drop more than 23,000 drug convictions that were linked to rouge lab chemist Annie Dookhan.

In a 2012 scandal that shook the court system and forced the closure of the Hinton State Lab in Jamaica Plain, Dookhan admitted to falsifying drug certifications. She became the lab's most prolific analyst, which impressed her bosses but raised concern among colleagues. That concern was overlooked for years, until an investigation was launched.

The SJC in January ordered District Attorneys to list all of the convictions they want to dismiss after the ACLU, state public defenders' office and private defense attorneys argued to have a mass dismissal of drug cases of the Dookhan-linked cases.

For any remaining cases, Eastern Massachusetts DA are required to certify in a letter that they can and will produce evidence — not handled by Dookhan — that could secure a guilty verdict if they are forced to go to trial.

The ACLU estimated there were 24,000 drug case linked to Dookhan.

The Suffolk County District Attorney Daniel Conley's office filed a letter today with SJC listing 15,750 convictions that will be dismissed and 117 cases that could be retried as part of the SJC's ruling.

There are 117 convictions the Suffolk DA will prosecute is a motion f fora new trial is allowed.

Middlesex District Attorney Marian Ryan in a press release states there are nine cases her office could prosecute if a motion for new trial were granted. Ryan dismissed 4,351 convictions against 3,000 defendants.

Bristol County District Attorney Thomas Quinn III indicated he would prosecute 112 cases if the defendants were granted new trials, NBC News reports.

Essex County DA Jonathan Blodgett said he would retry 55 cases, but agreed to dismiss 5,160, according to NBC News.

Cape & Islands District Attorney Michael O'Keefe would drop 1,067 cases and retry one case, NBC reports.

Courtesy photo of Annie Dookhan by CBS Boston.