Thousands of drug convictions at stake in Massachusetts case

BOSTON (AP) - None of the tens of thousands of defendants convicted of drug crimes after a chemist in a Massachusetts lab tampered with evidence should be convicted of a harsher sentence if they seek a new trial, the American Civil Liberties Union argued Thursday.

The case before the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court involves Annie Dookhan, a drug lab chemist who was sentenced in 2013 to at least three years in prison after admitting she faked test results.

ACLU lawyer Matthew Segal said many so-called "Dookhan defendants" are afraid of asking a judge to vacate their guilty pleas in order to seek a new trial because under state law, they can be prosecuted for crimes that had been dropped when they entered their original plea deal.

"They are afraid, and with good reason," said Segal, the legal director for the ACLU of Massachusetts.

Lawyers for the Suffolk and Essex County District Attorney's offices opposed the request, saying prosecutors should not be limited if a case is retried.

The Committee for Public Counsel Services, which oversees public defenders in Massachusetts, said prosecutors have also delayed in providing basic information to help identify and reach out to affected convicts, a notion the district attorney's offices disputed.

The ACLU and the committee estimates over 40,000 convictions are linked with the drug lab scandal, but prosecutors suggested the number is closer to 20,000.

"We're two and a half years out from this (scandal) and we're still no closer to providing relief," said Benjamin Keehn, the committee's lawyer. "It could be 20,000, 30,000 or 40,000 people. We don't know."

The justices are expected to rule at a later date on the ACLU's petition.

The scandal erupted when Dookhan admitted she tampered with evidence at the William A. Hinton State Laboratory Institute in Boston. The scandal forced the closure of the drug lab in 2012.

Dookhan eventually pleaded guilty to obstruction of justice, perjury and tampering with evidence.

Thursday's hearing was in the case of Bridgeman vs. District Attorney for Suffolk County. It centered on three people who had pleaded guilty to drug-related charges based on evidence tested and potentially tainted by Dookhan.

The court also heard arguments Thursday in two other cases related to the state drug lab scandal.