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That's how many criminal drug convictions have been thrown out in Massachusetts because of tampering with evidence by ONE person.

In what may be the single largest dismissal of wrongful convictions in US history, Massachusetts prosecutors announced Tuesday they would throw out 21,587 criminal drug cases. The cases were all prosecuted based on evidence or testimony supplied by a former state chemist who admitted to faking tests and identifying evidence as illegal narcotics without even testing it. The chemist, Annie Dookhan, pleaded guilty in 2013 to tampering with evidence during her nine years working at a state crime lab in Boston. During that time, thousands of people were convicted based on her false statements. For more, we speak with Matthew Segal, legal director of the ACLU of Massachusetts; Mallory Hanora of the group Families for Justice as Healing; and Timothy Taylor, who was arrested in 2009 and served five years in prison on a drug trafficking charge after Annie Dookhan handled evidence in his case.


Massachusetts to Throw Out 21,000 Drug Convictions After State Chemist Tampers Evidence for Nine Years

How in heaven's name has it taken three whole years for them to make that decision. People have been left in jail for up to three years after her guilty plea? The entire state legislature should be banned from office for not actively preventing such an injustice.

As a supplementary question, how did the people of Massachusetts - or anyone else - benefit from the prosecution and conviction of anyone for "criminal drug cases" in the first place? And if there was no benefit, why was it done?