stop rapists over here….

As an analyst, I would love to have someone doing the initial evidence screening. However, I just don’t think that there is a sufficient understanding of what comes after that is done. It is all well and good to say why not extract the DNA from all those samples and maintain them for long term, eventual testing. The ability to do such a thing is simply not feasible without more funding. I find that the point of lack of funding is being missed here. A straight-forward DNA case takes at best two weeks. Heaven forbid we are talking about a multi-exhibit, multi-subject case. At that point we are talking about one month plus.

It is easy to get upset at the lack of testing of sexual assault kit. I understand that. However, let’s not forget that in the end, a lot of life comes down to money. It costs easily over $1000 to process an “easy” case. No, there should be no price tag on justice. But, there is a price tag on everything. Let’s not just say “do more testing”. How about we all say, “let’s get more money”. Sexual assault is a violent crime. It is no less violent than a homicide. The difference that society seems to put on the crime is (1) no life is lost (I use that loosely because certainly a life, as it once was, is lost) and (2) women surely must “ask” for what they get.

I hope I do not come across as minimizing sexual assault and the backlog of testing. I simply do not want everyone to buy into the idea that it is inherently by choice that these kits are not getting testing because I assure it is not the case.

Ever hear about those cases where DNA testing was used to free someone who’s been sitting in jail for a long time?

Yeah, we had one recently where two teens sat in jail for four years for a murder they didn’t commit. They were put there by a cop’s informant and the D.A. sat on DNA test results that would have cleared them for 18 months which relatively speaking, isn’t that long. I remember talking to all the attorneys trying to figure out what was going on and then reading the prelim transcript and kicking myself for not reading it earlier b/c it was clear in the transcript they had the wrong guys. The DNA was done in a group of eight and identified two other older men as the probable killers.

I know there’s all sorts of training and security checks that have to be done before doing police forensic work, but I can tell you right now that if an opportunity to go through all that to help test those kits came up, I would leave all that I have – job, brand new apartment, friends, life – to do something that would help others in such a vulnerable and scary situation.

Also, big thanks to purpleshoes for linking to SarahQuibbling’s blog (http://sarahq.livejournal.com/tag/forensics) – love it. :)

Not only that if we know what is going on we take action against. Sitting in ignorance will not cause any kind of change in the system.

While I do not discount the validity of the numbers quoted in this piece, I do hope it is not a blanket statement on how sexual assault evidence is (or is not) processed across the nation. I also hope it is not a blanket statement on the priorities of law enforcement officers on the whole.

This is my job. 80-90% of the evidence that I process is sexual assault evidence. I am only one of four other DNA analysts responsible for well over thirty counties. It is incredibly difficult to keep our heads above the water.

Bottom line, there does need to be more funding. It is not a cop out. It is hard to secure that funding…not just for forensic science institutions, but for science institutions in general.

In addition, I have to disagree with the following from Leah:
“Not to mention, at fridge temperature, biological samples have a limited shelf life (think about it; even refrigerated milk goes bad). Hundreds of thousands of samples have been lost and are being lost unnecessarily due to mold, bacteria, etc etc in the samples, which destroy DNA (not to mention even pure DNA is not indefinitely stable at fridge temp).”

The only biological evidence stored at fridge temperature is the blood sample (victim or subject…and even this evidence is stored in the presence of a preservative) and it is only stored under such conditions until it can be archived. The remaining evidence (provided it has been air-dried either in the field, at the hospital, or following submission to the lab…yes, on occasion this step is done incorrectly) is infinitely stable. Therefore, more funding means the sexual assault evidence that has been untested can indeed eventually be tested.

The value come in when the next woman he rapes who doesn’t know him files a complaint and they get a match on the DNA. That’s one of the big points behind DNA testing in rape cases, not just to prosecute that case, but to prosecute future cases that may come up, especially if the low-life didn’t get convicted or even caught the first time around.

Exactly — or previous offenses. Instead, we’ve probably got a bunch of rape kits sitting in storage with DNA samples from the same guy, only some have an identity match and some don’t. That’s invaluable evidence.