The Daily Caller – by Robby Soave
Annie Dookhan, a chemist for the Massachusetts police, was sentenced to three to five years in prison after committing a fraud so extensive that her crimes call into question the validity of over 40,000 convictions.
Dookhan worked in a laboratory examining evidence in drug cases. She was a go-to analyst for law enforcement and prosecutors, thanks to her rapid turnaround time and penchant for delivering much-needed drug evidence to score convictions.
Her record, however, was based on countless criminal fabrications. She falsified numerous reports, cut corners, forged signatures, inflated her credentials, lied about whether she was actually testing the lab samples she received and even tampered with evidence, according to NPR.
She just wanted to be good at her job, she said.
After pleading guilty to 27 counts of evidence tampering and falsifying reports, Dookhan was recently sentenced to three to five years in prison. Her lawyer had asked for a lesser sentence, given that Dookhan is the primary caretaker for her seven-year-old son, who is disabled.
The sentence, while not insignificant, seemed too forgiving to some commentators, who noted that Dookhan’s criminal practices helped the government convict and sentence potentially innocent men and women to hundreds of years in prison.
“The one thing we cannot have in our ridiculous ongoing modern prohibitionist state is a criminal justice system that punishes the criminals in law enforcement as harshly as it punishes those at whom the laws are aimed, and on whom the law principally falls,” wrote Charles Pierce, a writer for Esquire.
Massachusetts state Rep. Bradley Jones Jr., a Republican, agreed that the sentence was too light.
“You walk away feeling this is really inadequate to what has happened, and the ramifications that it has had, and is going to have, on the criminal justice system,” said Jones in a statement to The Boston Globe. “Three to five years is not adequate.”
The revelation of Dookhan’s crimes has also sparked a wave of convicted drug criminals asking to be released, or receive new trials. The state has already spent $8 million trying to accommodate their needs, and released some 600 wrongfully convicted prisoners.
Of course, state residents are worried that some of the releases will also be wrongful. Donta Hood, who was initially set free because of Dookhan’s crimes, has now been re-arrested on first-degree murder charges.
Justice Carol Ball, who sentenced Dookhan, described her as “a tragic, broken person who has been undone by her own ambition.”
“Innocent persons were incarcerated,” said Ball. “Guilty persons have been released to further endanger the public, millions and millions of public dollars are being expended to deal with the chaos Ms. Dookhan created, and the integrity of the criminal justice system has been shaken to the core.”
She sounds sociopathic to me. Primary caretaker for a disabled 7-year old child…. what is in the best interests of the child here? Her excuse that she was just trying to do a good job does not hold up. Still not taking responsibility? Classic sociopathic response. She knew full well that she was messing with people’s lives, sending innocents to prison and allowing the guilty to go free. No, 3 to 5 years is a very light sentence. I hope a loving and normal caretaker can be found for her disabled child.
She should have been sentenced to at least 5 years for each person that was sent…….This sae sort of thing happened to me, and it hapened more than just once. Yea, and they think that a guy is supposed to forgive and forget. they ruined my life well over 40 + yr.s ago over some false testimony over something that I had absolutely no involvement and they want a guy like me to forget and forgive people like the cops and the govt. like this – Sh!!!!t they made a enemy and a bitter enemy. I want a few of you govt. bastardas just to retaliate and be sadistic with!, ya all hear that you good cop/bad cop and govt. employesse you POS. You all have a part in ruining my life along with a lot of other innocent people lives. there is no such thing as a good govt. employee at any level, they are all the scum of the earth and IMOHO you do not have the right to breath the same air that I do.
I feel bad, digger, that that happened to you….I know this sentiment won’t repair or replace for you, what was taken…you should know though, that there are people who care about what happened to you, all the others, and is yet happening right now to victims of the legal system….I am one of those people….have been and always will be!….
this story is a first class example of …why…drugs should be legal…It’s a story barely touching the tip of the iceberg…when the conversation about “illegal” drugs begins……My self! I don’t use drugs, never have…Oh i’ll have a beer, sometimes too many, too…and alcohol is a drug….thats it…no prescription drugs nor others…legal or illegal…..and I went through the 1960’s college campus scene, when rec drugs were just hitting…and managed to tell myself…I have enough trouble with beer, forget all that other stuff…It’s not lost on me either that alcohol in the chemistry lab is a solvent….and sometimes I’ll ask myself, why put a solvent inside? And not too convincing an answer comes to mind. It’s been going on since recorded history…..I’ll admit, that’s lame at best!
Am reminded of the music group…..Four Jacks And A Jill…song…Master Jack… lyrics open…the song….”it’s a strange, strange world we live in Master Jack” (and indeed it is!)
This is only one miniscule example of the corruption that permeates the system at all levels in all places and at all times. Shocking ? NO of course not this is the New America, companies make money having people in prison. So of course they want more people locked up. Guilty? Who cares we make money. Remember money,money,money,money,money,money. It kinda makes you sick after a while or it should.
There is no way she is the only one who does this….she just happens to be one that got caught.
Wasn’t there a story a couple of weeks ago about a prosecutor not disclosing evidence in a bunch of cases and got off with ten days in jail?
Yes Tammyc. there was a DA/prosecuted that got the max of TEN DAYS in jail. It is their job to riun lives and the only ones that they presecute are the ones that they can make it look like they are doing their job at fighting corruption in the govt. and the court system. I wish that it was open season on these that get a paycheck from the govt and the state, and I don`t mean a dissability/ssi check either.
Just get a rope and make an example of her.