If you were to be incriminated for possession of a substance that looked like a drug, you would like to think proper testing would be conducted, to either prove your innocence, or convict you of your crime. As we talked about in class, approximately six percent of people sent to prison were wrongfully convicted. The United States has one of the highest incarceration rates in the world–I would like to hope that we are doing everything we can to prevent innocent people from going to prison. As outlined in How to Fix a Drug Scandal, this may not always be the case.
Sonja Farak was a chemist working at the Amherst Lab in Massachusetts. The lab was known for being poorly funded, and rundown. The staff in the lab were being overworked in poor conditions. There were little security measures being put in place (i.e. no lock on the refrigerator containing standards), and employees had lots of independence with little to no supervision.
One day, authorities went into the evidence locker searching for two samples. When the samples were not there, they went to Sonja’s desk to see if she was still working on them. They found the evidence bags, but they had been cut open. When the substances in the bag were tested, they came back false for cocaine. Sonja had taken the drugs, and then replaced them with fake ones. She also was taking liquid methamphetamine out of the refrigerator in the lab for herself to, “give her pep”. Maybe worst of all, Sonja was not testing all of the substances that were brought into the lab, faking test results.
As I listened to the case unfold, I was shocked. It is terrifying to think that people were wrongfully sent to prison because of Sonja Farak’s drug addiction. It is through instances such as this that people begin to lose faith in the justice system. This one case tarnished the reputation of forensic science, and the credibility it holds. I don’t hold Sonja Farak fully accountable for this situation. If the conditions of the lab had been better, if there were more chemists to help so they were not being overwhelmed by the volume of cases, and if the surveillance had been better, this all could have been avoided. For everyone’s sake involved, I hope something like this never happens again (394).