THURSDAY NEWS LINKS:

Mayor Announces Plan to Eliminate City’s Backlog of Untested Rape Kits

Posted byHoumanitarian

Anita Hassan & Mike Morris,
Houston Chronicle
The city of Houston’s backlog of untested rape kits – decades in the making and numbering more than 6,600 – will be erased within 14 months through a $4.4 million plan to outsource DNA testing, Mayor Annise Parker announced Wednesday.

The plan, city officials said, would see the Houston Police Department ship the rape kits and DNA evidence from other cases, such as robberies and property crimes, to two private labs for testing. The proposal could bring closure to a rocky decade for the city lab, ridding the institution of a backlog Parker likened to a dragging anchor. The timing is particularly apt, officials said, as oversight for the lab transitions from the HPD to an independent board.

Testing rape kits potentially could identify serial rapists and solve past cases, as occurred after a rape kit in the city’s backlog was tested in 2011. City officials said the testing also could help exonerate those who have been wrongly convicted.

“A rape kit is second only to the rape itself. It degrades the individual, it’s painful, it’s humiliating, and to go through that and then not to have your kit tested is probably the greatest indignity, following a rape, that you can have,” said Councilwoman Ellen Cohen, former director of the Houston Area Women’s Center. “The fact that we set aside the money to do it, the fact that we’re going to be able to keep up and current, means so much to victim-survivors.”

Funding for the plan will come from $2.2 million in federal grants and $2.2 million set aside for testing in the city’s current budget. Contracts with the two firms, Bode Technology Group, of Lorton, Va., and Salt Lake City-based Sorenson Forensics, will come to City Council next week.
(Read more of this story at Chron.com)

ADDITIONAL COVERAGE:

LOCAL AREA HEADLINES:

STATE, NATION & WORLD: