DOVER, Del. (AP) - After their argument was rejected by the state's court system, public defenders are now pushing for the federal court to vacate the guilty pleas of scores of drug defendants in Kent and Sussex counties because of an evidence-tampering scandal at the state drug-testing lab.
The Wilmington News Journalreports that Assistant Public Defender Nicole Walker filed petitions in U.S. District Court in Delaware last week on behalf of about 40 defendants who pleaded guilty to drug offenses before the thefts and tampering were discovered in 2014.
The defendants want to withdraw their guilty pleas and be re-tried.
The Delaware Supreme Court ruled in October that no evidence was planted and that none of the defendants argued that he or she did not, in fact, possess illegal drugs.
