Carol Rose, executive director of the ACLU of Massachusetts, today released the following statement in response to the Massachusetts Attorney General’s recommendation that the Sonja Farak case be brought to the full Supreme Judicial Court:
“The ACLU of Massachusetts applauds the decision by Attorney General Maura Healey to ask the full Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court (SJC) to hear the case brought by CPCS, the ACLU of Massachusetts, and Fick & Marx, which seeks a remedy for misconduct committed by former Amherst Drug Lab chemist Sonja Farak and by prosecutors, including two former Assistant Attorneys General who were found by a judge to have committed ‘a fraud upon the court’ by deliberately concealing the scope of Farak’s actions. Sweeping misconduct by state officials requires a systemic solution. The SJC now has the opportunity to not only vacate over 8,000 tainted convictions, but to establish a new precedent to address prosecutorial misconduct and the human suffering it causes. The people of Massachusetts deserve a justice system that holds itself accountable to the same standards that it applies to the public.”
Click here for a full timeline of the drug lab scandals.
Learn more about the case, Committee for Public Counsel Services v. Attorney General.
