Dis­graced T&T-born US-based chemist An­nie Dookhan, whose faulty test­ing of ev­i­dence out of a Boston lab led to wide­spread is­sues in the US crim­i­nal jus­tice sys­tem, has been re­leased from prison.

Her at­tor­ney told the Boston Her­ald Dookhan was freed last month.

Dookhan, who had worked at the De­part­ment of Pub­lic Health, plead­ed guilty in No­vem­ber 2013 to charges, in­clud­ing per­jury, ev­i­dence tam­per­ing and ob­struc­tion of jus­tice for fal­si­fy­ing drug tests in crim­i­nal in­ves­ti­ga­tions.

She was sen­tenced to three to five years in prison.

Of­fi­cials be­lieved her ac­tions may have af­fect­ed up to 40,000 cas­es and the state set aside mil­lions of dol­lars for de­fen­dants who would even­tu­al­ly chal­lenge the drug ev­i­dence used in their con­vic­tions which may have passed through the lab from which she op­er­at­ed.

Sev­er­al hun­dred peo­ple, col­lo­qui­al­ly known as "Dookhan de­fen­dants," have al­ready had their con­vic­tions thrown out on ap­peal.

Nico­las Gor­don, the at­tor­ney who rep­re­sent­ed her in court, said the de­ci­sion to grant her pa­role was "en­tire­ly ap­pro­pri­ate" giv­en her lack of a pri­or crim­i­nal record.

"She is an ex­treme­ly strong and re­silient la­dy and she is ad­just­ing back to nor­mal­cy now.

"Based on how well I know her, I'm very con­fi­dent she's go­ing to have a very bright fu­ture ahead of her," he added.

Gor­don said Dookhan did not yet have her long-term plans set­tled.

"What­ev­er they are, I'm con­fi­dent she's go­ing to be a great suc­cess," he said.

At her sen­tenc­ing, the judge de­tailed the "cat­a­stroph­ic" con­se­quences of her ac­tions.

"In­no­cent per­sons were in­car­cer­at­ed, guilty per­sons have been re­leased to fur­ther en­dan­ger the pub­lic, mil­lions and mil­lions of pub­lic dol­lars are be­ing ex­pend­ed to deal with the chaos Ms Dookhan cre­at­ed and the in­tegri­ty of the crim­i­nal jus­tice sys­tem has been shak­en to the core," Judge Car­ol S Ball said in the rul­ing.