A new bill making its way to the US Senate could provide more funding to states like Washington to finally clear out backlogged rape kits that have taken years to process and review.
Loftis said the state has come a long way from the 12,000 kits that sat untested on evidence shelves six years ago. In November of last year, the number of kits waiting for testing and review had been cut in half to around 6,000, and this month, he said it's dropped even further.
"Michael Vincenzo Johnson, 30, of Casper, Wyoming pled guilty to two separate sexual assaults in Kalamazoo from 2013, Michigan Attorney Dana Nessel announced Thursday.
“He had already moved to another state to continue his pattern of assaulting young women and girls. I’m grateful for the hard work of the Kalamazoo SAKI investigators and participating law enforcement agencies in Michigan and Wyoming for their help in taking a sexual predator off the streets,” Nessel said."
FY2022 Grantee Welcome Webinar - Strengthening the Medical Examiner-Coroner System Program
— Forensics Training and Technical Assistance Team, Feb 22, 2023
The Forensics TTA Team recently hosted a webinar in collaboration with the Bureau of Justice Assistance (BJA). This webinar introduced Medical Examiner-Coroner grantees to the overall BJA Team that works collectively to administer their award funds - the BJA Policy Office, BJA Programs Office, and BJA Planning, Performance, and Impact Team. The webinar provided useful training information on how to submit progress reports; submit Grant Award Modifications; accept awards; performance management and measures; and other information to support the award management and grant monitoring activities. Viewers were also introduced to the new Forensics Training and Technical Assistance (TTA) Program, led by RTI International, that will provide a range of TTA resources and services to all active grantees within BJA's individual forensic science programs.
The trauma for a victim of sexual assault increases when that person experiences delay after delay in obtaining DNA test results from a Sexual Assault Kit (SAK). That’s why the News-Miner applauds the news that the Alaska Crime Lab (ALC) reports only a minute number of untested SAKs. In fact, ACL reports it has reduced untested kits 98% since 2017.
A man has been sentenced to nine years in prison for the sexual assault of a 33-year-old woman in 1999.
“Today’s sentencing shows just how important the work of our G.O.L.D. Unit is,” Cuyahoga County Prosecutor Michael O’Malley said in the release. “Through their work and the work of our agency partners, after 23 years, we were able to bring this offender to justice and hopefully provide the victim with some long overdue closure.”
A recent report from the state Executive Office of Public Safety and Security suggests the State Police Crime Lab has made progress testing more than 6,500 so-called sexual assault evidence collection kits that were determined to require review under a 2021 law intended to reduce the backlog.
FY2022 Grantee Welcome Webinar - Prosecuting Cold Cases Using DNA Program
— Forensics Training and Technical Assistance Team, Feb 9, 2023
The Forensics TTA Team recently hosted a webinar in collaboration with the Bureau of Justice Assistance (BJA). During this webinar, BJA provided an overview of the Prosecuting Cold Cases Using DNA program, guidelines for newly awarded grantees, and addressed questions from attendees. Attendees were also introduced to the BJA Policy and Programs Office, as well as the Forensics Training and Technical Assistance (TTA) Team.
"An arrest has been made in the nearly 40-year-old double murder of a mother and son in Charlotte’s Hidden Valley neighborhood, authorities say.
Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police announced the arrest of James Thomas Pratt, 60, in connection with the murders of Sarah Mobley Hall, 27, and her 10-year-old son, Derrick Dion Mobley."
"Back in 2018, the attorney general's office found over 16,000 untested rape kits in local law enforcement offices across the state. Since then, they have cut that backlogged number in half.
The AG's office hopes to speed up production with more staff.
The office anticipates backlogged rape kit testing will be done by the end of the year, or by the start of 2024."
"George Wayne Aldridge, 52, was arrested Friday and charged in three abductions and sexual assaults between 2009 and 2016, the Lexington Police Department said in a news release early Saturday.
Police said they worked the cold cases in conjunction with Kentucky State Police, the Jessamine County Sheriff’s Office and Kentucky Office of Attorney General’s Sexual Assault Kit Initiative Task Force."
Funded by the Bureau of Justice Assistance, the Sexual Assault Kit Initiative aims to create a coordinated community response that ensures just resolution to sexual assault cases. Through this program, funding is provided to support multidisciplinary community response teams engaged in the comprehensive reform of jurisdictions approaches to sexual assault cases resulting from evidence found in previously unsubmitted sexual assault kits.
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