Travesty of Justice: Massachusetts Drug War Collapses on Lab Scandal

Share on Facebook
Share on Twitter
Share on
LinkedIn
+

Joe Selvaggi talks with Pioneer Institute senior legal fellow Jim McKenna about Massachusetts’ drug prosecution cases resting on evidence produced by badly mismanaged drug testing labs, and the implications for potentially hundreds of thousands convicted on erroneous, tainted, or fabricated evidence.

Guest:

Jim McKenna is Senior Fellow with PioneerLegal. He has been an Adjunct Teaching Professor at Worcester Polytechnic Institute for more than 25 years, where he teaches courses on law and ethics. After serving as a prosecutor for a decade, including in the Organized Crime Division of the Suffolk County (Boston) District Attorney’s Office, McKenna has been in private practice for more than two decades. He lives in Millbury, Massachusetts, where he serves as Town Moderator. He is a graduate of the College of the Holy Cross and Boston College Law School.

Get new episodes of Hubwonk in your inbox!

Recent Episodes

Contours of Content Curation: SCOTUS Hears Online Free Speech Cases

Cato Institute's Thomas Berry, talks about oral arguments at the Supreme Court in the NetChoice cases, exploring the First Amendment questions that affect both social media users and the platforms that curate their content.

Mortgage’s New Normal: Guide to Better Borrowing Amidst Higher Rates

Joe Selvaggi talks with mortgage expert, Trip Miller of Cambridge Savings Bank, about mortgage rates and trends and explores best practices for finding a mortgage structure that suits individual buyers’ needs.

Medicaid’s Massive Miasma: Taming Beacon Hill’s Burgeoning Budget Beast

Marc Joffe, a state policy analyst at the Cato Institute, talks about his research on Medicaid's cost and size. They explore how Massachusetts can control spending growth while protecting other priorities.

Baystate Budget Blues: Declining Revenue Causes Concern

Joe Selvaggi engages in a conversation with Pioneer Institute’s Eileen McAnneny, Senior Fellow for Economic Opportunity, to analyze the status of the 2024 budget. They compare actual revenue and spending with pre-July 1 estimates, investigating potential reasons for any surpluses or shortfalls. They also dive into policy implications for legislators as they approach fiscal 2025.

Smothering Gas Exports: President Sides with Environmentalists Over Environment

Dr. Benjamin Zycher, a senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, talks on the impact of President Biden's executive order to halt liquefied natural gas export approvals. He explores potential economic impacts, the response from trading partners, and the negligible effect on climate.

U.S. Manufacturing Health: Does the U.S. Need an Industrial Policy?

Scott Lincicome from the Cato Institute discusses the U.S. manufacturing industry, international trade, and industrial policy. He dispels the myth of manufacturing decline, highlighting sector evolution and productivity. The conversation moves to industrial policy, emphasizing the need for targeted protection and cautioning against broad subsidization due to potential inefficiencies.

Challenging Government Prerogatives: SCOTUS Reconsiders Deference to Executive Agencies

Joe Selvaggi engages in a conversation with legal scholar Ilya Shapiro from the Manhattan Institute regarding the Loper Bright Enterprises Supreme Court case that questions the Chevron Doctrine. This doctrine instructs judges to defer to government agencies in situations where laws are silent or unclear.

Harvard’s Sullied Halo: Journalists Teach Lesson on Plagiarism

Joe Selvaggi talks with investigative reporter Chris Brunet about his role investigating and exposing former Harvard President Claudine Gay’s academic plagiarism, a story that lead to her eventual resignation.

Drug Discount Distortions: How Middlemen Increase Costs and Reduce Access

Joe Selvaggi talks with Drs. Bill Smith and Robert Popovian about how the complex system of rebates from drug companies to insurance firms serve to increase costs and reduce access for patients.

Boston’s Building Bargain: Coaxing Commercial Conversions to Condos

Joe Selvaggi discusses the strategic goals of Boston's Downtown Office to Residential Conversion Pilot Program with Arthur Jemison, the head of BPDA planning. The aim is to transform underutilized offices in Downtown into vibrant places to live.

SCOTUS Wealth Tax: Are Appreciated Assets Income?

Joe Selvaggi talks with CATO Institute constitutional scholar Thomas Berry about the recently argued Moore v. U.S.A. case, which challenges the idea that income must be realized before it can be taxed.

Busting Big Business: Antitrust Comes for Google and Big Sandwich

Joe Selvaggi talks with Dr. Brian Albrecht, an economists with the International Center for Law and Economics. They separate fact from fiction when it comes to the public’s and politicians’ concerns over allegedly anti-consumer practices of big business and discuss when antitrust action by the federal government is justified.