Commonwealth v. Harris

Five years after pleading guilty to drug and firearms offenses in the District Court, the defendant filed a motion for new trial (once amended) seeking to vacate his guilty pleas after learning of the misconduct of Annie Dookhan, the chemist who performed the confirmatory tests on the cocaine in his case.2 Following a hearing, the judge denied the amended motion, adopting the Commonwealth's argument that the defendant had failed to meet his burden of proof. On appeal the defendant claims that the judge abused her discretion because (1) there was a reasonable probability that he would not have…