Massachusetts Evidence Falsification Scandal

[The Original Nex]

I am going to say that of all the legal systems I have learned about and/or worked in, the US system takes the cake for stupidity and incompetence.

Now, would anybody else like to nitpick this or can we continue about how utterly corrupt this ...person must have been and how utterly inept the supervisors and legal system must have been to let this happen?

We have conflicts of interest that permeate out entire legal system. Judges and the District Attorney are elected, more often than not, which by definition is going to affect their decision making. Both because the public can punish them with lack of re-election if the public does not like applying the 4th amendment properly for certain types of suspects (for example), and because they have to raise election funds which makes them beholden to whoever gives them money. The private prison lobby for example, or the police union. A prosecutor is not going to go after a dirty cop with their campaign funds riding on whether or not the police union likes them.

Then there are all the other conflicts of interest, particularly those inherent to the adversarial system...

I know this argument has gone beyond the specifics of this case, but to be clear: in Massachusetts, judges and DAs are appointed positions.

[JME2]

Just read the article.

I'm reminded of that crime lab scandal here in SF from a couple years back.

But this easily dwarfs that clusterfuck. That so many people have been potentially fucked over by this is horrifying.

And I agree that in an ideal world, Annie Dookhan would get life without parole.