Commentary

Sexual assault victims deserve better...

Violence committed primarily against women and children must be taken
seriously.

Last year, an investigation by my office discovered that thousands of
unprocessed rape kits were sitting in police stations across the state. We
will never know the number of attackers who got away with these heinous
crimes or how many assaults could have been prevented if every rape kit
had been tested promptly and followed up on by law enforcement.

The justice system’s failure to process evidence collected from sexual
assault cases sends a horrible message to survivors of these devastating
crimes.  That needs to change.

Please help me make Illinois the first state in the nation to require that
every rape kit collected be submitted for DNA testing within ten business
days. Call your state senator and ask them to support Senate Bill 3269,
the Sexual Assault Evidence Submission Act, sponsored by Senator Toi
Hutchinson, which is awaiting a vote by the full Illinois Senate.

For further information check out the Chicago Tribune editorial below.

Thank you for your help,

Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan

Test the Rape Kits -- Chicago Tribune, Editorial
March 7, 2010

When a woman is sexually assaulted and seeks treatment at a hospital, she
is asked to submit to an invasive exam, allowing a nurse to secure semen,
saliva and other potential DNA samples. It’s a grueling process that can
require hours and involve taking photographs and X-rays. Afterward, the
woman signs a consent form that notifies her the evidence - in what’s
known as a rape kit - will be sent to a lab and tested.

But that’s not always what happens.

Chicago-area police departments and prosecutor’s offices often follow
different policies for when and how fast those kits are submitted to the
Illinois State Police crime lab for testing. They may not send the kit at
all, depending on whether the prosecutor charges a suspect. Or if the
victim recants or decides not to press charges, or the accused says sex
was consensual.

Sometimes, rape kits are rejected by the crime lab. The result of the
different standards: Thousands of rape kits gather dust on police
department shelves, and sexual predators remain free.

Tribune reporter Megan Twohey found that over the last two years large
suburban police agencies have stored untested kits with potential DNA
evidence from nearly 100 alleged victims of sexual assault or abuse. They
include a woman who said she was sexually assaulted in Downers Grove by a
stranger who dragged her to the ground and bit her. A 6-year-old
Bolingbrook boy who told investigators an older child forced him to
perform oral sex. An Aurora woman who reported being sexually assaulted by
an acquaintance who later made a taped confession.

Those are some of the cases we know about. We don’t know how many sex
offenders could have been stopped had thousands of shelved DNA samples
been entered into the database.

Officials need one statewide standard for the testing of rape kits. That’s
the aim of a bill in the Illinois Senate.

Crafted by Attorney General Lisa Madigan’s office, the proposal would
require police to submit every rape kit to the lab within 10 days. Every
kit would have to be tested within six months, if sufficient staffing and
resources are available at the lab. DNA evidence would go into the
database, and it would be expunged if the suspect is cleared. We strongly
support this bill. No rape kit should molder on a police department shelf.
If someone has been assaulted and a rape kit is collected, it should under
law be tested.

And what about the backlog? This bill would require agencies to submit all
untested kits. It doesn’t say how quickly they have to be tested. That
depends on how many there are and how long they have been sitting on the
shelf.

Yes, testing thousands of kits will add to the backlog at the state crime
lab. That needn’t be an insurmountable problem. The lab in recent months
has whittled the backlog with the help of new technology and a $2.5
million federal grant.

Those who commit sex crimes tend to be repeat offenders. The larger the
database, the more likely it is that offenders will be matched to existing
DNA evidence and stopped before they have a chance to hurt more people.

—Paid for by Citizens for Lisa Madigan—