Delaware’s Supreme Court has rejected another appeal of self-admitted drug offenders whose criminal evidence may have been tampered with by state workers.
Chief Justice Leo Strine’s latest opinion is one of several that has dismissed arguments from dozens of drug offenders who claim mismanagement at the state’s crime lab affected their case.
Strine maintains that the 45 people involved in this latest appeal still knowingly pleaded guilty to their respective crimes – many, he says, before the lab tested any evidence in their cases.
More than half of them also filed their motions after a one-year time limit had expired.
It’s been an ongoing saga playing out in Delaware’s court system since officials discovered stark security lapses at the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner in 2014.
State prosecutors accused two crime lab workers of stealing drug evidence to sell on the side, but they either had charges dropped or avoided prison time.
