Posted on 02/23/2015 4:27:11 PM PST by E. Pluribus Unum
Evidence from more than 6,600 rape kits that went untested for years in Houston have turned up 850 hits in the FBI's nationwide database of DNA profiles, marking a major step in the city's $6 million effort to address the backlog, officials announced Monday.
(Excerpt) Read more at abcnews.go.com ...
I suspect statute of still breathing will apply too.
A lot of people dismiss the complaints by women that police don’t take their claims of rape seriously.
People say that since there are false accusations of rape (and there sure are) and since some feminists make stupid claims like ‘no woman would lie about rape’ (those claims are indeed stupid), that there is nothing to the complaints that the police aren’t following up on reports of rape.
Here we have hundreds of DNA matches from known criminals that have been sitting in police files. Some for years. And the women who were raped weren’t even given the basic procedural acknowledgment that the crime committed against them was important.
Shame on the Houston police.
Let’s hope not.
What puzzles me is, why does it take a thousand bucks to read each test.
if they are illegals, can they be arrested ?
| A thousand sounds pretty cheep to me considering the lab equipment and expertise involved.
Assuming you can only get one read out of these puppies. The certitude needed to pass muster in court for a conviction is far more than the certitude needed to match a database let alone get an indictment. Why pay Cadillac prices for something that is going to be a Chevrolet need most of the time.
And yet... you can now get parenthood tests at the drugstore.
Really? Will they stand up in court under cross examination?
This could blow up if the MSM decided to care.
Of course it’s going to take money to prosecute all of those cases.
And the Houston forensic lab was tainted with scandal a few years back (fabricating evidence in DWI cases, sloppy work all around in other cases).
The city was lax in its duty for decades.
Prosecution of violent crimes requires jail space. I don’t know how things are now but our jails were full. And it costs money to put someone in jail. And you have to pay the legal defense of those who can’t afford it.
It’s much easier to write fines and revenue tickets.
If a Republican mayor ever ran this city then it would be a scandal.
Seriously, how much would it cost to hire more people in the forensics department?
Oh....I’m thinking about reporters around the country asking Police Chiefs, “What is your backlog on testing rape kits?”.
It’s about much more than just the cost to test samples.
Carjacking in Houston got bad (I am talking BEFORE Katrina) and there was zero prosecution in the FIVE different cases that I knew about (friends, friends of friends/co-workers, etc.). Even with kidnapping. Even with armed robbery. Even with fingerprints and ID cards left in the vehicles (when recovered).
“It’s much easier to write fines and revenue tickets.”
....And lock up drug offenders and seize property
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