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Alaska to receive federal grant to process over 1000 untested sexual assault kits
— Wesley Early, Alaska Public Media, Oct 4, 2016
Governor Bill Walker announced in 2016 that Alaska will receive $1.1 million in grant funding from the U.S. Department of Justice to process over 1,000 sexual assault evidence kits. The funding will cover SAK testing costs, as well as pay for investigators and prosecutors to process the cold cases. To learn more, read the full article.
Testing of Oregon's shelved sexual assault kits nets first 5 DNA matches
— Aimee Green, The Oregonian, Oct 3, 2016
Prosecutors are currently reviewing five matched DNA results to known offenders in Oregon’s database. The matches come 6 months after Oregon began shipping previously unsubmitted sexual assault kits for testing. Oregon recently was awarded $1.9 million from the U.S. Department of Justice to test its backlogged SAKs, and law enforcement personnel are already seeing success from these efforts.
Fayetteville police awarded $793,372 grant to help rape victims get justice
— Alan Wooten, FayObserver, Sep 28, 2016
Recent funding from the U.S. Department of Justice will allow Fayetteville, North Carolina law enforcement personnel to test over 500 previously unsubmitted sexual assault evidence kits. Police department staff will also use the funding to pay for investigators and prosecutors to solve cold cases resulting from testing DNA matches. To learn more, read the full article.
First arrest made under new sexual assault kit program
— Alyssa Meisner, TriStateUpdate.com, Sep 28, 2016
After receiving funding to inventory and test its backlogged sexual assault kits, West Virginia’s state crime lab found a DNA match, and law enforcement personnel made their first arrest. To learn more, watch the full video.
Wayne County Prosecutor Kym Worthy hosts Detroit Sexual Assault Summit (interview)
— Holly Fournier and Candice Williams The Detroit News, Sep 26, 2016
The first Detroit Sexual Assault Kit Summit, hosted by Wayne County Prosecutor Kym Worthy, drew hundreds of attendees from across the nation and dozens of attendees from Michigan cities to discuss how best to handle sexual assault cases. Michigan has tested the vast majority of its untested sexual assault kits, but about 700 remain. Currently, Detroit has over 60 convictions and identified 770 serial rapists, as well as thousands of additional suspects. Furthermore, the DNA testing of the serial rapists ties them to a variety of crimes in 39 other states. To learn more about how Detroit went from a city with the worst backlog of rape kits to the front line of the charge against sexual assault, read the full interview with Prosecutor Worthy.
West Virginia aims to eliminate untested sexual assault kits and improve evidence collection
— Ian McQuinn, Business Wire, Sep 20, 2016
The West Virginia Division of Justice and Community Services recently completed the development of a new online system that tracks sexual assault kits from the time they are shipped to a health care facility to when they are collected and returned for forensic testing. The system also collects information on the quality of the collected SAKs that will be used to identify areas of improvement and training opportunities. The new online tracking system enables the associated crime labs and police departments to track SAKs that are sent to a facility and when. To learn more about West Virginia’s new tracking system, read the full article.
Quick action in Cabell rape kit backlog case is expected
— Courtney Hessler, The Herald-Dispatch, Sep 15, 2016
A serial rapist is now behind bars due to the results from testing backlogged rape kits in West Virginia. The perpetrator committed the crime in 2004, but was not implicated in the assault until 2016, after West Virginia received funding from the federal government to test all of its backlogged rape kits in cold storage. To learn more, read the full article.
It's official: testing rape kits prevents assault and saves everybody millions
— Janet Burns, Forbes, Sep 14, 2016
Research out of Case Western Reserve University in Ohio suggests that testing rape kits can actually save the public money. Not only have the results of testing convicted over 520 defendants so far, but research suggests that sexual assaults prevented by testing the backlogged rape kits will “save the county’s would-be victims an estimated $48.3 million, or $200,000 each, in pain and suffering, medical expenditures, earnings lost due to injury, and decreased quality of life. Less the approximately $9.6 million cost of testing Cuyahoga County’s passed-over kits, the team says, the Northeast Ohio area would already net a savings of $38.7 million, not to mention an estimated 1,290 indictments and 947 convictions.” To learn more, read the full article.
