One woman fixed evidence in 40,000 legal cases. Systemic tampering suspected. Millions framed for crimes they didn't commit.

MASSACHUSETTS — In a maddening scandal that is rocking the state of Massachusetts, a government crime lab chemist has been caught intentionally forging signatures and tampering with evidence in as many as 40,000 cases, destroying the lives of countless innocent Americans.Annie Dookhan worked as a chemist for the State of Massachusetts, and it turns out she had close relations with prosecutors.These prosecutors were able to successfully convict innocent Americans because Dookhan would chemically taint the “evidence,” resulting in career boosts for the prosecutors while innocent men and women were torn from their families and locked in cells.Prosecutors praised Dookhan’s work and depended on her to get the convictions they wanted.Hundreds of “convicts” and defendants have already been released, and there are potentially thousands more waiting to be set free.Dookhan used her position to forge results for nearly a decade. ”I don’t think anyone ever perceived that one person was capable of causing this much chaos,” says Norfolk County District Attorney Michael Morrissey.“You can see the entire walls full of boxes… in one of these cardboard boxes, there could be hundreds of cases … in each box,” says Morrissey.Hundreds of defendants and “convicts” had been arguing that they were framed and claiming that the evidence used to convict them was mishandled. They were right.In one recent case, a man was charged with “selling cocaine and heroin.” His public defender, Julieann Hernon, believes that this man was a potential victim of Dookhan’s fake evidence and ought to be released.“[Dookhan] was mis-testing evidence, dry-labbing evidence, saying she had ‘conducted tests’ when she had not, deliberately tainting drugs,” Hernon said.“Certainly, I think, we have to presume a taint here when Annie Dookhan was the chemist in the case,” Hernon says.In another recent case, defense attorney William Sullivan was able to successfully reverse his client’s prior “guilt” because Dookhan was the secondary chemist involved in the conviction.“This is a lab that was pretty much wholly and fully contaminated by Ms. Annie Dookhan,”Sullivan told the judge.



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