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Government Chemist Tampered With 40,000 Cases

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41–50 of 173 posts

Re: Government Chemist Tampered With 40,000 Cases

#42
post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Edit: Goes to prove that a _GOOD_ defense lawyer would have dig that up during cross exam. (if that is a thing) sure, the defense lawyer can ask questions, but what series of questions do you think they could've asked that would've done anything here? they would've needed to perform pre-trial investigations of the lady (such as the state police performed) to discover this. which isn't out of the question, but isn't…

Hmm not sure, but well, wouldn't a simple question of "where did your degree in chemistry come from" while the person in question is under OAuth? EDIT: Oath. I've been working too much recently.

since that is exactly what she was lying, or confused about, i fail to see how asking it one more time would help.

in fact, the state prosecutors probably asked her that question a bajillion times, as part of qualifying her as an expert witness.

(added: in case you don't know, i'd like to clarify that qualifying expert witnesses occurs in open court. the defense, judge, jury, anyone watching the case, etc would all hear the question asked, and her answer. this would come after a copy of her CV, including relevant degrees, was submitted.)

Re: Government Chemist Tampered With 40,000 Cases

#44

3-5 years?! THREE TO FIVE YEARS???!!! There are no words. Agents of the law need to be held more accountable for their actions than your average citizen, not less. This is disgusting.

You're all being kind of harsh. She was just trying to advance her career.

Re: Government Chemist Tampered With 40,000 Cases

#45
post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

All 190,000 of them?

How many of those 190,000 pose a risk of harm to other people? How many of them were violent, or sexual[1], offenders? [1] Laws are different in different places, but here I'm talking about actual sex offences, not things like public urination. (Which is gross, but usually not a sexual offence).

It doesn't really matter what their offense was if the prosecution can't convict them for it legitimately. Any convictions dependent on that chemist's work should be void.

Re: Government Chemist Tampered With 40,000 Cases

#46
post #39

3-5 years?! THREE TO FIVE YEARS???!!! There are no words. Agents of the law need to be held more accountable for their actions than your average citizen, not less. This is disgusting.

The simplistic view would be that every unjust sentence served by someone else as a result of her tampering should transfer to her.

It should be every unjust sentence awarded not served. The terror of being told 20 years and living out 1 them is enough to award 20 years to someone else.

Re: Government Chemist Tampered With 40,000 Cases

#47
post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What is the punishment for helping somebody to hold a person captive in their basement? The sentence should be that times sixhundred (how many wrongful convictions she caused, number might rise yet).

Honestly I think this is a situation where the death penalty is entirely appropriate. I don't like the idea of more suffering when there is already plenty to go around here, but I can't see how you can call it "justice" if she is allowed to live. An example must be set that this kind of thing is so repugnant to civilized societies that it WILL NOT BE TOLERATED. EDIT: The scale of her crimes is thousands of person-yea…

[deleted]

Re: Government Chemist Tampered With 40,000 Cases

#48
post #8

3-5 years?! THREE TO FIVE YEARS???!!! There are no words. Agents of the law need to be held more accountable for their actions than your average citizen, not less. This is disgusting.

I have mixed feelings about jail terms in general, but I agree– this is precisely the sort of crime I would imagine carrying a life sentence. The number of cases affected & lives disrupted here is hardly fathomable.

I don't know how Massachusetts law -- or US Federal law -- swings, but here in the UK there's a specific crime, magnificently called Conspiracy to Pervert the Course of Justice, which covers everything from perjury to faking evidence. And while the average sentence is on the order of 2 years, there's no upper limit: a life sentence is possible in sufficiently extreme cases.

Re: Government Chemist Tampered With 40,000 Cases

#49
post #23

This kind of case is fascinating. The woman wasn't evil. But her actions really are. It's very easy, too easy, to say that she is evil because what she did was so bad. But that's lazy, and it misses the interesting stuff. How do people get caught up in performing such horrendous acts? There's a bunch of cognitive stuff going on, and some subtle manipulation. I suspect that something similar is how we end up with app…

No. It is simpler than you are making it out to be.

If you say "I did the test that proves it is heroin" and you didn't, and you are smart enough to be a chemist, and you see some poor guy get put in jail, then you are evil.

Re: Government Chemist Tampered With 40,000 Cases

#50

3-5 years?! THREE TO FIVE YEARS???!!! There are no words. Agents of the law need to be held more accountable for their actions than your average citizen, not less. This is disgusting.

You're all being kind of harsh. She was just trying to advance her career.

i believe you forgot the /sarcasm and /troll markups in your comment.
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