Shaheen pushes for funding to end rape kit backlog

By JAMIE L. COSTA

Monitor staff

Published: 03-21-2023 3:21 PM

U.S. Sen. Jeanne Shaheen is working with colleagues to reauthorize federal funding for crime labs across the country to process rape kits quicker and reduce backlogs. 

The legislation, known as the Debbie Smith Act, was first signed into law in 2004 to provide local and state crime labs with the resources to test DNA evidence collected from crime scenes. Once DNA evidence is gathered it is entered into a national database, which can be used to match known offenders with unsolved crimes. 

“The ongoing backlog of testing DNA evidence – including evaluating rape kits – delays crimes from being solved and puts justice out of reach for survivors of sexual violence,” said Shaheen who is chair of the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee which funds the Departments of Justice’s Office on Violence Against Women. “State and local law enforcement agencies must have the resources to efficiently process and analyze DNA evidence.” 

In 2022, the average turnaround time for the serological examination of a rape kit was 153 days while the average turnaround time for DNA analysis was 244 days, said Concord Lieutenant Marc McGonagle who leads criminal investigations. With the help of federal funding, those times could be cut in half. 

Though the federal funding will assist crime labs across the country, the state of New Hampshire currently has no sexual assault kits that are backlogged in the laboratory, said Melisa Staples, director of the New Hampshire State Forensic Laboratory. And the Concord Police Department has not submitted a kit since November.

In 2022, the department submitted and investigated 11 sexual assault cases, all of which produced results within the year. However, only 310 out of every 1,000 sexual assaults are reported to police, meaning two out of three go unreported, according to the Rape, Abuse & Incest National Network website. 

“This bill is critical to ensuring that law enforcement agencies can evaluate evidence and act swiftly – it’s important Congress renews this law,” Shaheen said. 

The Debbie Smith Act is named after a Virginia woman who was raped in 1989 and DNA from her rape kit wasn’t tested until 1994. A year later, her attacker was identified and convicted. The Act was reauthorized in 2008, 2014 and 2019. 

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The most recent legislation was introduced by U Senators John Cornyn (R-TX), Dianne Feinstein (D-CA), Lindsey Graham (R-SC) and Amy Klobuchar (D-MN) and co-sponsored by another 11 Republican and Democratic senators.

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