Alaska this year appropriated nearly $3 million to have its more than 3,400 backlogged rape kits tested by private labs, though no deadline has been set.
its. The Republican-controlled Legislature gave approval to start the tracking system but denied the funding.
Although the 15,160 figure is the result of a Legislature-required audit of North Carolina’s law enforcement agencies, state Rep. Ted Davis, the Republican who sponsored the narrow bill that eventually passed, said he opposed funding to test the kits without more solid numbers on how many untested kits existed. Ninety-two percent of state agencies responded to the audit.
Davis said in an interview that it was important to “get a grip on how many rape kits actually need to be tested because you will not have to test a kit where the defendant [pleaded] guilty, or where the prosecuting witness is refusing to testify, where defendants have died. … Let’s get the system in place to see what we have, and that argument about why we should and why we should not [test the kits] can be at a later date.”
Proponents for testing rape kits argue it’s important to test all kits, unless the victim is opposed, because even in cases where someone has pleaded guilty, the evidence could be used to solve other open cases where a rapist’s identity is unknown. DNA also can be used to exonerate those who are wrongly convicted.
“What this work is proving, and this is very startling but also a big opportunity, is that many of these people are actually serial sexual assaulters,” said Alaska state Rep. Geran Tarr, a Democrat who sponsored the rape kit legislation there.
Nazneen Ahmed, a spokeswoman for North Carolina’s Attorney General’s Office, said the state lab does not have the resources to test the kits.
Rape kit tracking systems are not just a means for helping work through backlogged kits but also a way to keep tabs on new kits that will inevitably be created.
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