Single Justice Vacates “List 3” Cases Tainted by Disgraced Chemist
DA Rollins continues efforts toward global resolution for Hinton cases
BOSTON, June 25, 2021— A Single Justice of the Supreme Judicial Court today allowed a motion by District Attorney Rachael Rollins’ office vacating more than 100 convictions in which disgraced chemist Annie Dookhan tested evidence.
“Today’s decision is, morally and legally, the right one. No conviction that Annie Dookhan had a role in securing can be allowed to stand now that we understand the full scope and enormity of her malfeasance and the gross mismanagement of the former William A. Hinton State Laboratory Institute,” District Attorney Rollins said. “By taking the singular action to vacate the remaining Suffolk County convictions that relied on Ms. Dookhan’s false drug certifications and testimony, Massachusetts’ highest court has stated loud and clear that finality is no substitute for justice.
“I was elected on a platform of stopping unfair and discriminatory use of drug laws against the poor and BIPOC communities. Over seventy percent of the List 3 cases in Suffolk County charged a member of the BIPOC community,” District Attorney Rollins added. “Those drug offenses – based on tainted evidence – have strained prosecutorial, public defender, and court resources. This decision finally stops the collateral consequences of the criminal misconduct by a disgraced chemist and the complete and utter mismanagement of the Hinton Lab.”
The decision also ensures that the taxpayers will not be forced to shoulder the cost of litigating each of these cases individually.
“As we continue our work to achieve a just, equitable resolution to all of the convictions that were tainted by the Hinton drug lab, this decision stands as a victory and confirmation that we can achieve a global remedy to these injustices. Systemic problems require systemic solutions,” District Attorney Rollins explained.
The ruling vacates nearly 110 convictions for drug offenses in which Ms. Dookhan tested drug evidence. The so-called “List Three” cases were those that Massachusetts District Attorneys did not move to vacate following the SJC’s landmark decision in Bridgeman and others v. District Attorney for the Suffolk District and others. In Bridgeman, the Commonwealth’s District Attorneys were required to certify that they could produce evidence at a retrial, independent of Ms. Dookhan’s signed drug certificate or testimony, that the substance at issue was the drug alleged in the charge.
The motion to vacate the remaining cases was filed by Assistant District Attorney David A.F. Lewis, chief of District Attorney Rollins’ Integrity Review Bureau. The IRB, launched in 2019, is the first unit of its kind in the nation. The scope of the IRB’s work goes far beyond that of the conviction integrity units operated by many other elected prosecutors by extending its focus to review policies and practices through four focus areas. Case Integrity reviews sentinel events during a case such as a no bill by the grand jury, a judge granting a motion to suppress evidence, or a directed verdict in real time. Conviction Integrity looks at post-conviction claims of innocence or wrongful convictions based on unconstitutional, unethical or unjust actions. Sentencing Integrity examines whether certain sentences have produced unjust and disparate results. And the recently announced Law Enforcement Automatic Discovery (LEAD) Database includes law enforcement witnesses who have a history of misconduct, untruthfulness or discriminatory bias or whose credibility has been challenged by a court or administrative agency.
The IRB is also overseeing District Attorney Rollins’ Hinton Lab Initiative, an ongoing effort to find a systemic response to the widespread harm caused by the criminal actions of Ms. Dookhan and former chemist Sonya Farak and the mismanagement of the Hinton lab where they each worked for periods of their careers and overlapped for a brief time. District Attorney Rollins launched the Hinton Lab Initiative earlier this year and convened a summit of approximately 70 stakeholders as part of a wide-reaching effort to address all Suffolk County cases in which evidence was tested at the now shuttered lab.
"Today’s decision is a step toward justice, but we still have a long road ahead,” District Attorney Rollins said. “The Hinton Lab was so grossly mismanaged that we cannot have confidence in any of the testing performed at the site, tainting every drug conviction the lab was involved in. As we celebrate this victory, we must continue the work that we have started to correct the enormous harm that has been and continues to be inflicted.”
Suffolk County District Attorney Rachael Rollins’ office serves the communities of Boston, Chelsea, Revere, and Winthrop, Mass. The office handles over 20,000 cases a year. More than 160 attorneys in the office practice in nine district and municipal courts, Suffolk Superior Court, the Massachusetts Appeals Court, the Supreme Judicial Court, and the Boston Juvenile Courts. The office employs some 300 people and offers a wide range of services and programs to serve anyone who comes in contact with the criminal justice system. This office is committed to educating the public about the services we provide, our commitment to crime prevention, and our dedication to keeping the residents of Suffolk County safe.