Thanks to new legislation, a backlog of untested rape kits in Illinois could finally be sent to crime labs and tested. According to the Chicago Tribune, various police departments statewide have been sitting on more than 4,000 untested kits. Different departments have different reasons for not sending the kits to crime labs, including when a prosecutor declines to press charges, if a victim has recanted allegations or when a victim doesn’t want to sign a complaint. In an interview with the Tribune, deputy attorney general for criminal justice Mike Hood also pointed out that Illinois currently has no state protocol for handling rape kits.

New protocols being created for handling DNA evidence from sexual assaults could hopefully produce new leads in unsolved cases. In addition, having a state protocol for handling and testing rape kits could help further prove cases of sexual assault. Lisa Friel, a sex crimes prosecutor from New York (where rape kit testing has a higher priority) said in a Tribune interview “If you move forward with the DNA gathered…then you have a totally different scenario on your hands. You know you need to catch this person before they attack again.”

Filed in News and tagged DNA evidence, Mike Hood, untested rape kits

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