Suffolk District Attorney Rachael Rollins has moved to vacate more than 100 convictions of defendants whose cases involved evidence linked to Annie Dookhan, a state drug lab chemist convicted in 2013 of falsifying drug test results.
The move, announced Tuesday morning, comes after thousands of convictions that relied on Dookhan's evidence were overturned by the state Supreme Judicial Court in 2017; and after district attorneys already voluntarily dismissed or vacated thousands more convictions, including more than 7,000 such cases in Suffolk County.
Prosecutors were allowed, however, to preserve charges or convictions in a smaller number of cases where the district attorney certified it could produce independent evidence in a retrial.
The 108 convictions Rollins now seeks to vacate represents those cases her predecessor, D.A. Daniel Conley, sought to preserve.
In a press briefing Tuesday, Rollins said vacating those convictions is about prioritizing the rebuilding of broken trust.
“What this did was further erode trust that certain communities had with law enforcement, so if we are clinging to any conviction that touched these tainted and cancerous individuals, I really say 'shame on us.' We should have, years ago, dismissed all these cases.”
Rollins says her office continues to review another set of convictions involving evidence tied to Sonja Farak, another state drug lab chemist also convicted of criminal misconduct in her job.
“We are not done looking at this really horrible chapter in Massachusetts history,” Rollins said, “being the state with the worst drug lab scandals in the history of the United States of America.”
Christopher Post, an attorney who litigated hundreds of cases tied to Dookhan and Farak, told GBH News he applauds Rollins’ decision.
“[Rollins] I think very rightly decided that these convictions should not stand,” Post said. “It’s certainly refreshing to see that D.A.s throughout the state are now more and more starting to look at the drug lab issues and are deciding that justice was not done.”
While the bulk of the tainted cases were brought in Suffolk County, others — including convictions that have been preserved — remain under the purview of other district attorneys, including Middlesex District Attorney Marian Ryan.
Post, who continues to represent a small handful of defendants convicted by evidence tied to Dookhan or Farak, says he and others who have worked on the cases will now be watching closely to see whether or how Ryan and other D.A.s respond to Rollins decision — and how the outstanding cases with ties to Farak get resolved.
