[ad_1]
Drug defendants whose cases have not yet been closed due to widespread misconduct in a Boston lab are not entitled to new trials unless they can prove only evidence specific to their case. were tainted, a judge said on Wednesday.
Tens of thousands of convictions have already been thrown because of the tampering with the state drug lab, which, along with the theft from another Massachusetts lab, is one of the nation’s worst scandals. Potentially, hundreds of thousands of other defendants could still challenge their convictions, according to the Public Defender’s Office.
Superior Court Judge Michael A. Ricciuti’s ruling dismissed convicted cocaine trafficker Justino Escobar’s petition for a new trial, which Suffolk County District Attorney Rachael Rollins had argued. Rollins is awaiting confirmation as President Joe Biden’s candidate for US Attorney General for Massachusetts.
Judge’s ruling against blanket quashing of all cases handled by the Boston lab is a blow not only to the remaining defendants, but also to Rollins, who had asked the judge to support a mass dismissal based on evidence from the William A. Hinton State Laboratory Institute.
“Escobar has not presented any specific facts to warrant relief in his own case. Nor has he provided sufficient facts or legal authority to justify the comprehensive remedy he seeks,” Ricciuti wrote.
Rollins had asked the judge to seek a “comprehensive remedy” for prosecutors handling the Hinton cases in the state’s highest court. Ricciuti refused to do so, saying Rollins had not provided enough evidence to justify the claim.
The ruling means litigation over tainted drug tests could go on for years, costing taxpayers untold amounts of money as state prosecutors defend challenges to drug convictions.
The state’s Public Defender’s Office estimates that as many as 250,000 drug convictions could be based on Hinton cases between 2003 and 2012. Of these, 70,000 are in Suffolk County.
Rollins said on Wednesday she would appeal to the state’s highest court.
“Systemic problems require systemic solutions,” Rollins said in a statement. “Forcing individual parties affected by blatant and widespread government misconduct to just litigate resolutions in approximately 70,000 separate cases… is patently ineffective, patently unfair and patently inequitable.”
Escobar’s lawyer also expressed his disappointment.
“We respectfully disagree with the Superior Court’s finding and will appeal,” said James P. McKenna.
The Public Advisory Services Committee, the state’s public defender’s office, which supported Rollins, said the decision would not end their efforts.
“While we are disappointed with this decision, our underlying goal remains the same: to ensure that any conviction tainted by the mismanagement of this drug lab is dismissed,” Chief Counsel Anthony Benedetti said in a statement. communicated.
The scandal, in which drug tests were tampered with or stolen from Hinton and Amherst State Laboratory, cost Massachusetts taxpayers at least $ 30 million to fix it.
Escobar pleaded guilty in 2009 to one count of trafficking in cocaine over 14 grams. He was sentenced to eight to twelve years in state prison. The drugs in his case were tested in 2008 in Hinton, and he began challenging his conviction in 2015.
Escobar and Rollins’ attorney argued that due to the massive misconduct at Hinton – described in a 2014 and 2016 State Inspector General report – all of the evidence tested there during from this period are suspect.
But Ricciuti said there was no clear evidence in Escobar’s case that the chemist involved was at fault in testing the drugs in his case.
Ricciuti said Escobar had to demonstrate demonstrably “serious government misconduct” that preceded his guilty plea and show that the misconduct occurred in his case before a new trial could be granted.
Ricciuti also pointed out that the Supreme Court of Justice had previously refused to sweep drug convictions based on tests performed at the Amherst State Laboratory without clear evidence that there had been misconduct in a particular case. But all in all, he dismissed over 35,000 convictions for misconduct.
The scandal erupted when chemist Annie Dookhan admitted to tampering with evidence at the Hinton lab, forcing it to shut down in 2012. Dookhan was sentenced in 2013 to at least three years in prison. Sonja Farak pleaded guilty in 2014 to stealing drugs from the Amherst lab.
The two women are free after having served less than five years in collective prison.
Mulvihill is an associate professor of the practice of computer journalism at Boston University and co-founder of the New England Center for Investigative Journalism. AP New England editor William J. Kole contributed.
[ad_2]
Source link