Free Republic

Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto (D-NV) left thousands of rape kits untested during her time as Nevada’s attorney general until Republican Adam Laxalt, who formerly held the position and is now running against her for U.S. Senate, secured millions of dollars to clear the backlog and make dozens of arrests. Towards the end of the eight years Cortez Masto spent as Nevada’s attorney general in October 2014, a national nonprofit found that only 16 percent of the 5,231 rape kits collected in Las Vegas were examined from 2004 to 2013 — meaning roughly 4,400 were left untested, as the Washington Free...

TheHill reports President Trump signed a bill Monday to help eliminate the number of rape kits that need testing and are currently stalled in a backlog. The legislation will provide funding from the Department of Justice to help local governments get through the backlog of untested rape kits. Currently, there are more than 100,000 untested rape kits across the U.S., according to ABC News. The White House said the Debbie Smith Reauthorization Act of 2019 will ensure that “criminals are brought to justice,” according to a statement from press secretary Stephanie Grisham. “We know that DNA is much more likely...

Kamala Harris's presidential campaign is quietly building out its national footprint. The California Democrat has taken a more methodical approach than some rivals in amassing ground troops. On Tuesday, Harris' team will take another step, launching a national training program designed to harness volunteer energy on the ground that it could later tap into, according to a preview of the plan shared with POLITICO. **SNIP** Harris, who piloted her online program in Iowa under the banner of "Camp Kamala," will put volunteers through one or two sessions a week as part of its national effort to train future precinct captains...

CLEVELAND (Reuters) – An effort Ohio launched about five years ago to manage its backlog of rape kits has resulted in more than 10,000 tests to recover physical evidence and led to at least 445 indictments, the state Attorney General’s office said on Thursday.

The Austin Police Department could potentially reopen dozens of rape investigations after getting the results from its backlog of 2,665 untested rape kits. About 35 percent of the rape kits tested brought back positive DNA findings, which could mean as many as 933 cases. Austin Police outsourced the DNA testing of the untested rape kits to labs in other states to help tackle the backlog. All the testing was completed in April 2018 and now that investigators have the results, they are "reopening and beginning to work cases that correspond with kits that yielded positive results," according to a City...

LAW-ENFORCEMENT ACCOUNTABILITY Time to show rape victims matter By Helena Lazaro I’d just turned 17 when I was abducted from a car wash by a stranger near my Los Angeles home and repeatedly raped at knife-point. I begged the attacker to spare my life and release me, and he did — but not before he took my driver’s license swearing to kill everyone in my home if I ever told police what happened. That cold night in 1996, I risked my life and the safety of my family by reporting what happened. I underwent the deeply traumatic evidence collection process...

For years, rape kits piled up in Houston. Thousands and thousands of swaps, running back almost 30 years, sat untested. Victims heard nothing. Perpetrators went on with their lives and, in some cases, committed further crimes. Eventually, there were nearly 6,700 kits waiting to be processed.

"I was in shock. I was outraged and I just assumed kits were being tested," said actress Mariska Hargitay about the thousands of rape kits in Detroit and across the country that have been left sitting in storage without being processed, allowing rapists to remain free to attack again. And they often do. Hargitay joined Wayne County Prosecutor Kym Worthy to announce legislation that will soon be introduced to state lawmakers that is aimed at setting guidelines and deadlines for rape kits tests to be processed. "Testing rape kits is vital for keeping rapists off the street," said Hargitay during...

At least since September 8 the extreme left has been pushing a lie that Governor, then Mayor, Sarah Palin "charged rape victims for rape kits" performed upon them in the Alaskan town of Wasilla. The charge stems from a May 22, 2000 article in the local Wasilla paper The Frontiersman and has been spun from a comment made by the Wasilla Police Chief. This comment was somehow made into a Sarah Palin policy. Evidence of the incident, though, shows no involvement by Palin at all.

A few points to consider when you hear about the town of Wasilla, and its egregious former policy of charging rape victims for rape kits, a topic USA Today examined today. 1. It is indeed a terrible policy to charge a rape victim for the cost of collecting evidence to prosecute. But these charges occur, even in places where the law theoretically bans it. According to a 2008 U.S. News and World Report article, some Illinois rape victims are still being charged for the rape kits. The state seemed to address this in a 2001 law, but it would seem...