Thursday, July 18, 2019
Mass Crime Lab Case
Former Massachusetts separate Crime Lab chemist, Annie Dookhan, has been indicted on cardinal counts of tampering with evidence, perjury, and obstruction of justice afterwards a legal fallout that has jeopardized thousands of medicine cases (Smith). Dookhan admitted to dry-labbing (distinguishing a have is a soporiferous based on appearance kinda of actually testing), altering test topics, and on purpose turned a negative sample into a positive for narcotics a a few(prenominal) times. A nonher fashion in which she tampered with the testing samples was by exaggerating the weight of seized drugs in govern to cause the accused company to receive harsher penalties.As a result of the chemists actions, many devoid passel have served jail time, charm deserving criminals were let off the hook. plane though her coworkers and supervisors were suspicious on some(prenominal) occasions throughout the course of some(prenominal) years, she was not caught until 2011 when she admitt ed to forging a allys signature on paperwork. It was not until this action, that she was finally suspended from her duties (The liveness Case). The undermentioned thought that occurs to someone reading this drool is Why. What would possess someone to riskiness his or her job and credentials?It is serious to understand what exactly would motivate Annie Dookhan to give this type of annoyance considering that her life was not directly impacted by the fates of the defendants her samples belonged to. Frederick Herzbergs motivation-hygiene theory, also known as the two-factor theory, could be applied in this case. Lab executives lead style Crime labs would be smash served if they were operated privately and contracted by states rather than run by a legal philosophy department. in that location is cause for concern when a state prosecutor has intrinsic ties to the people testing the evidence he or she needs to convict a felon.It is an authorityling conflict of interest to hav e a horror lab under the control of the natural law. Northeastern University law professor Daniel Medwed said, There are often implicit pressures on crime lab technicians to help out prosecutors to take the stand in cases in a way that supports their perceived colleagues in law enforcement (The Living Case). As a result of the case of the Melendez-Diaz v. Massachusetts case, chemists are now indispensable to be present at the tryout of the substance they tested in order to be cross-examined on their testimony (Melendez-Diaz v. Massachusetts). manner in mind that their testimony carries a lot of weight in a trial, chemists should remain separate so that issues of outrage or bias arise. Aside from that issue, cosmos run be the state police produces problems in relation to the management of the crime lab reporting any errors in testing that may occur. The leaders may feel that exposing problems would only increase a backlog of paperwork and further testing as a result of an i nternal investigation. In this case, it does not seem that the leadership was abnormal by police involvement as the lab was run by the department of Public Health during the period of the incidents.Sources * I was unsure how to cite the case given up to us as most of my info is derived from there, and I did not see where Kirkman provided quotation information. * http//www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/08pdf/07-591.pdf* http//www.npr.org/2013/03/14/174269211/mass-crime-lab-scandal-reverberates-across-state
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