Defendants In Dookhan Cases Cannot Have Charges Upgraded

The state's highest court has ruled that thousands of defendants convicted of drug crimes after a chemist in a Massachusetts lab tampered with evidence cannot be charged with a more serious crime or given a harsher sentence if they seek a new trial.

The Supreme Judicial Court, however, declined to vacate all convictions based on evidence tainted by chemist Annie Dookhan, who was sentenced to at least three years in prison in 2013 after pleading guilty to faking test results.

The court handed down the decision in a 50-page ruling Monday.

It had heard arguments in the case in January from the Committee for Public Counsel Services, which oversees public defenders in Massachusetts, the American Civil Liberties Union and the Suffolk and Essex County district attorney's offices. (Associated Press)