‘Rape Kit’ Advocate

[Visionoyahweh]

http://www.clickondetroit.com/news/Wayn ... index.html

I'm not sure what's more fucked up: 21 serial rapists are on the loose, or that the rape kits weren't tested for YEARS after the fact.

[doggie]

it is sad. I don't know if it was a FUBAR or it is a budget issue. A lot of police departs have little money anymore.

[dawbs]

from the interviews w/ the woman in charge of dealing w/ the backlog, it was a fubar.

They were basically tucked away and considered 'processed', even though they weren't.

[Eclipse]

My friend worked for a summer at the Detroit's DA office and visited the labs every now and then. From what he told me, this sadly does not surprise me at all.

[Lillybee]

There was an episode of Law and Order SUV in which the detectives were tracing a serial rapist. They wanted to check out rapes in about 8 different cities and found almost all of these cities were years behind on the testing.

[breadprincess]

Oh, Michigan, I love you so, but you continue to disappoint me.

I'm not shocked by any means, but it is a big let down. I'm glad that they caught the serial rapists, though belatedly.

[ADoyle90815]

I remember a local network news station did an expose on this issue, as there were rape kits in storage for many years. I think it's a national problem. As in Detroit, when those kits were processed, more rapists were caught. There was even a case where the wrong person was convicted, as when the kits were tested, the real rapist was identified and the innocent person was exonerated.

[Patsy]

Oh, Michigan, I love you so, but you continue to disappoint me.

I'm not shocked by any means, but it is a big let down. I'm glad that they caught the serial rapists, though belatedly.

Determined existence of, not caught. They've only compared DNA taken from rape kits of stranger rapes and found some matches at this point.

[Sola]

What shocks me is that so far they've only processed 200 rape kits out of the 11,000 and have already found 21 serial rapists. TWENTY-FUCKING-ONE!

How many will they find by the time they have processed the entire 11,000?

[Austin]

Here in Ohio, we had the Linden rapist's DNA backlogged in our crime lab while he merrily raped at will. It was totally budgetary. I was working for the AG at the time (whose office oversaw the crime lab) when it came to light and heads rolled and people jumped up and down, and the lab director became persona non grata overnight.

But the fact is a limited number of crime lab employees can only do so much in a day, so I think the vitriol was misdirected at them. It should have been directed at the people who set the priorities in budgeting. What is it they say? A budget is a moral document.

[merrily]

http://jezebel.com/5938441/this-impossi ... pular=true

:clap:

[BravaAmica]

She is my hero. Really. We need about ten million more of her.

[thekate]

There's already a similar thread.

viewtopic.php?f=8&t=12345

[luckystone]

THAT WOMAN IS AWESOME.

I can't believe the kits never get tested. I knew there was a backlog but I didn't realise there were like...no plans...it must be so traumatic to report the rape and go through the examination...then at least you'd think they'd look at it...but nope. Those poor women (and men?)

[wildcatgrrl]

Paul Bernardo's DNA was also taken in the Scarborough Rapist cases and went untested for over two years. By the time his DNA was found to match, he (and his wife) had already raped and murdered at least three young girls, including his own sister-in-law, and sexually assaulted several others. He submitted the DNA sample about a month before murdering his sister-in-law, so most likely her life could not have been saved. I'm not sure that any police lab turns testing around that fast. But he did not kill his next victim for almost six months. Quicker testing could have saved two of the three, at least.

But this was also in the early days of DNA testing. It's sad that although the technology is more advanced now, human error still botches stuff like this up royally.

[lilah]

Politicians can talk a big game about punishing rapists but stats tell a different story.