Unfortunately, a grand jury returned the first indictment one day after the 20-year statute of limitations had expired, which means the prosecution will not move forward. In that case, a rape kit from 1993 matched to Charles Steele, whose DNA profile was entered into the state’s database as a result of his incarceration for another rape case in Hamilton County. Detectives submitted the 1993 kit in July 2011 and did not receive the results until 17 months later. After receiving the results on December 25 of last year, they delayed in handing the case over to prosecutors to present to a grand jury. Two days after Steele was indicted, his DNA matched to yet another attack on a Cleveland woman that occurred eight months after the first Cleveland rape. Charges are pending in the later case.

The second indictment involved charges of rape, kidnapping, assault and attempted murder in another 1993 case against defendant Anthony Moore. This second indictment came just one day before the statute of limitations expired.

As more DNA results return from the lab, police will be working against the clock to investigate cases and turn them over to prosecutors for indictment before the statute of limitations expires. A Plain Dealer analysis conducted in February estimated approximately one-third of the kits sent to the lab could result in a DNA hit, if testing trends continue. That would mean more than 1,100 hits once the 3,000-plus kits in storage have been tested. Cleveland Police Chief Michael McGrath has said he plans to add up to two more detectives to the Sex Crimes & Child Abuse unit and to enlist the help of the FBI, if necessary.

Attorney General DeWine announced the backlog initiative in December 2011 and hired four new forensic scientists to focus exclusively on testing backlogged kits. Of the initiative, he said:

“More DNA hits mean more cold cases become open investigations for our local law enforcement agencies. My office is dedicated to helping our local authorities resolve as many of these cases as possible. I encourage any department with sexual assault kits that have not been tested, no matter how old the case is, to submit them now. We want them. We want to help bring justice to the victims. We want to solve more cases.”

Here are a few highlights of their progress:

Robbins, Illinois

CBS Chicago reports that police in Robbins, Illinois, a suburb of Chicago, recently discovered 51 rape kits that had never been sent for testing. Some of the kits dated as far back as 1986. The Cook County Sheriff’s Office is now working to process this backlog because Robbins lacks the resources to do so.

According to the Robbins Police Department, they did not test the kits because the victims either recanted or declined to press charges. This is difficult to verify, however, because a flood in the basement of the Department destroyed the statements that would normally accompany the kits. That being the case, the Sheriff’s Office will process all 51 kits.

In a press conference, Cook County Sheriff Tom Dart said a rape kit examination “is incredibly difficult and traumatic for a woman to go through, and it’s rare someone would go through with it and not want to pursue a criminal case.” He added, “The victims should know they will have their cases heard, and they will be treated like they should have been treated. My goal is to bring justice to these folks.” Sheriff Dart’s office has been assisting Robbins with patrols and investigations in recent weeks, which led to the discovery of the untested kits.

As we reported previously, state officials made a similar discovery in Harvey, a neighboring suburb, in 2007. In a raid on the Harvey Police Department, officials uncovered 200 untested rape kits. In 2010, Illinois became the first state to pass legislation requiring the tracking and testing of all rape kits.

Houston, Texas

Houston’s Mayor Annise Parker has announced the city’s plan to eliminate its backlog of more than 6,600 untested rape kits within 14 months. The Houston Chronicle reports that it will cost Houston $4.4 million to outsource the kits to two private labs for testing. Funding will come from $2.2 million in federal grants and $2.2 million in the city’s current budget.

While it typically costs approximately $1,200 to outsource just one rape kit, the labs have offered a price of $400 per kit given the large volume of kits they will receive. With the backlogged kits, the city will also send 1,450 kits from active rape cases, 1,020 DNA samples from other crimes and an estimated 1,000 rape kits that will be collected over the next year, for a total of 10,130.

Texas was the second state to require that law enforcement agencies test every rape kit booked into evidence. Houston, which received a National Institute of Justice action-research grant, along with Detroit, to study the causes of its backlog, has its own policy of testing every kit. This policy came about because of the ability of rape kit evidence to link perpetrators to other crimes and to honor survivors’ courageous decision to undergo a rape kit exam and report the crime.

Ohio

Law enforcement agencies from across the state of Ohio recently sent more than 2,300 untested rape kits to a state crime lab for analysis. Almost half of the untested kits came from the Cleveland Police. According to the Cleveland Plain Dealer, when all of the recently submitted kits are tested, law enforcement could have an estimated 850 cases resulting from DNA database matches.

While Ohio has not passed legislation requiring the testing of all rape kits, in late 2011, Ohio Attorney General Mike DeWine adopted a policy encouraging all law enforcement agencies to clear their backlogs. His office hired additional crime lab staff to handle the influx of evidence.

Cleveland alone discovered that it had more than 3,700 untested kits dating as far back as 1991. To date, the city has submitted 1,073 kits to the lab. The Toledo Police Department has sent 215 kits, and Akron has sent more than 300 kits, dating as far back as 1994. The crime lab is testing up to 100 kits per month, starting with the oldest first.

Of the kits tested so far, 103 contained useable DNA evidence, and 65 matched to DNA profiles in CODIS. Thirty-six of the cases with matches originated in Cleveland, and those matches have confirmed the identity of 11 suspects, identified potential suspects in 21 cases and identified a possible serial rapist.

Police officials in Cleveland, as well as Toledo and Akron, have expressed their commitment to following up on and investigating the leads that result from clearing their backlogs. Cleveland Police Chief Michael McGrath plans to add two more detectives to the Sex Crimes & Child Abuse unit and seek assistance from the FBI, if necessary. He said, “I wouldn’t send these kits if I wasn’t going to follow up on them.” Deputy Chief Ed Tomba added that their primary concern is locating survivors and responding to the varied reactions they will have upon learning of new leads in their cases.

If passed by the rest of the Colorado General Assembly, the law would also mandate that the Colorado Bureau of Investigation propose a plan for analyzing all submitted rape kits by June 30, 2014. Going forward, the law would require rape kits to be submitted for testing within 21 days of receipt by a law enforcement agency.

State Rep. Frank McNulty introduced the bill in response to an ABC CALL7 investigative report uncovering hundreds of untested rape kits in the greater Denver area. In a guest commentary for the Colorado Observer, Rep. McNulty explained his concern after seeing the report:

It takes very real courage to come forward to report a sexual assault and even greater courage to go through the trauma of evidence being collected. These women subjected themselves to the trauma of evidence collection so that their attacker would be brought to justice and so that other women wouldn’t become victims of their attacker. If rape kits are not tested so that the evidence can be loaded into state and national databases, the opportunity to provide justice for other women who have been assaulted by these same predators is dismissed.

He also made the case for testing every rape kit booked into police evidence:

Some maintain that not every kit submitted needs to be tested. While I understand this from the perspective of allocating financial resources, I simply don’t agree. We should be thorough in testing submitted rape kits and respecting the women who were assaulted. Troubling is the fact that, in one case, only 26 percent of the rape kits that were collected were tested – leaving 74 percent untested. In my opinion, that isn’t right. That agency has since changed its policy and is testing more evidence collected. We need other agencies to do the same.

The Call 7 report that inspired Rep. McNulty to introduce HB 1020 included an interview with a survivor whose rape kit was never tested. She asked:

 “Is it an unrealistic expectation that all evidence be considered and that the investigative process be complete?”

She also bravely testified before the House Judiciary Committee in support of HB 1020, pointing out to lawmakers that testing all rape kits, regardless of the type of crime, can help to identify serial rapists.

If this bill becomes law, Colorado will be the third state—behind Illinois and Texas—to require the testing of all rape kits. We are eager to share updates as HB 1020 progresses through the state legislature.

When asked about the untested kits, Davenport Police Chief Frank Donchez explained, “There are rape kits there that nothing can be done with. If we don’t know the victim, the suspect or the location of the incident, how can we conduct an investigation?”

After undergoing a rape kit examination, which can take between four and six hours, some victims of sexual assault decide not to report the assault to the police. In these instances, the rape kit is sometimes referred to as an “anonymous” or “Jane Doe” kit. To protect the victim’s privacy, the rape kit does not reveal any identifying information. Victims are given a code number they can use to identify themselves if they later choose to report the assault.

How long a police department must store an anonymous kit varies by state and jurisdiction. Under Iowa law, police must store the kit for a minimum of ten years.

Nationally, rape is one of the most underreported crimes, with an estimated 65 percent of cases unreported. There are many reasons why a survivor of sexual assault may decide not to report the assault, including embarrassment or shame, fear of being disbelieved or blamed, the re-traumatization that participating in the criminal justice system can bring, and fear of reprisal by the perpetrator. The closer the relationship between the survivor and the offender, the less likely the survivor is to report the assault.

Whether a survivor eventually decides to report the assault or not, members of law enforcement, prosecutors and service providers must support and empower the survivor to make that decision without any pressure. They must then respect the decision the survivor makes.

In other backlog news, a recent editorial in The New York Times called on the U.S. House of Representatives to pass the SAFER Act, which has since been added to the Violence Against Women Act currently being voted on in the Senate. The editorial also revealed new backlog numbers out of Fort Worth, Texas. When Fort Worth police submitted 960 kits for testing, the results led to the identification of 102 suspects, 47 arrests and 36 felony convictions. While clearing a backlog is a critical first step in bringing justice to survivors, jurisdictions must fully commit to following up on the investigative leads that testing can generate.

In 2011, the Texas state legislature passed a bill requiring law enforcement agencies to count the untested kits in their evidence rooms and report their numbers to DPS. Despite an October 2011 deadline, few agencies complied with the reporting requirement.

To date, approximately 130 of more than 2,600 police agencies have submitted their backlog numbers, including many of the biggest agencies. Among the reporting agencies, there are 15,900 untested rape kits. Based on that number, DPS estimates there to be roughly 20,000 untested kits statewide.

To clear a backlog of that size, DPS believes it will cost between $7 million and $11 million. When the state legislature meets for its 2013 session, it will discuss how to pay for testing. State officials are hopeful that the U.S. Congress will pass the Sexual Assault Forensic Evidence Registry (SAFER) Act, which would create a national registry for rape kit evidence and amend current law to require a greater percentage of Debbie Smith Act grant funds be spent directly on analyzing untested DNA evidence. The U.S. Senate passed the SAFER Act on New Year’s Eve, but it failed to pass the House and will be re-introduced in the new session.

Some Texas law enforcement agencies are already seeing results from their efforts to clear the backlog. In Houston, where fees collected from strip-club patrons help to fund the processing of untested rape kits, testing led to the arrest of a man for a rape that occurred ten years ago.

Greater Denver Area, Colorado

On November 11, 2012, ABC CALL7 released the results of an investigation to determine the number of untested rape kits in the greater Denver area. The investigation uncovered hundreds of untested rape kits. Among the findings were that the Denver Police Department has tested only 56% of the 1,064 rape kits it has collected since 2008. The Fort Collins Police Department, about an hour north of Denver, has tested just 28%of the 243 kits it has collected since 2007. Jefferson County has tested only 36% of the 117 rape kits it has collected in the last five years.

Throughout the investigation, police officials reported that their departments believe it is unnecessary to test all rape kits. A commander with the Denver Police explained, “A lot of rape kits we end up doing are just to document the trauma and everything else that occurred.”  He went on to say, “No, we don’t test 100% of the cases. Some of those we don’t want to test or don’t need to test.”  While detectives decide whether to send kits for testing on a case-by-case basis, they rarely test in cases where the perpetrator is known.

ABC CALL7 spoke to one survivor impacted by the backlog in Colorado. Two years ago, Kelly Binder was drugged, physically restrained and raped by a man she met at a Denver bar. She reported the rape and went through a rape kit examination, which she described as so invasive it felt like a second assault. A few weeks later, the detective assigned to her case told Ms. Binder that it would be too hard to prove that she didn’t give consent and informed her that her kit would not be tested. Ms. Binder said:

“I was raped. This man raped me. And they did nothing, they did nothing at all.”

Within a week of CALL7 breaking the story of the untested kits in the greater Denver area, the Fort Collins Police Department decided to change its policy on testing rape kits. Police Chief John Hutto said prior to the investigation, officers mistakenly assumed that the Colorado Bureau of Investigation (CBI) would not test rape kits when the perpetrator was known and would not upload the DNA into CODIS. After speaking with a CBI representative, Hutto learned all kits are tested and all DNA profiles are uploaded into CODIS.

Going forward, the Department will send every rape kit to CBI for testing, regardless of whether the offender is known. They will also begin looking at older kits they currently have in evidence and send those that fit the criteria under their new policy.

Phoenix Metropolitan Area, Arizona

An ABC15 investigation has uncovered nearly 3,000 untested rape kits in police departments across the Phoenix metropolitan area and hundreds more waiting at crime labs to be tested.  Many rape kits are never sent to a crime lab for testing. Only one police department in the Phoenix area, the Pinal County Sheriff’s Office, has an official “test all kits” policy. The Mesa Police Department and the Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office also reported that they test all rape kits.

Most other police departments in the area do not follow a “test all” policy. The Phoenix Police Department accounts for half of the area’s untested kits. Sgt. Trent Crump stated that testing a kit is left to the discretion of the detective assigned to the case. He said the circumstances in which kits go untested include when a victim declines to prosecute, when a victim changes his or her story or recants, and when a suspect admits to the crime and is arrested.  He also said the Department generally does not test kits in cases where the victim knows the assailant. Sgt. Crump defended this position, saying that when identity is not at issue, testing the rape kit is unnecessary because consent is the issue.

Even when police departments send rape kits for testing, the process is slow and often incomplete. In the first step of the testing process, an analyst determines whether the rape kit contains DNA. If DNA is present, the kit proceeds to the second phase, where the DNA is analyzed and entered into CODIS to determine whether it matches to a known offender and/or other crime scenes. Arizona’s Department of Public Safety’s (DPS) Scientific Analysis Bureau estimates it takes 60 to 90 days just to complete step one, but in reality, it can take much longer.

ABC15 discovered that of the 2,546 rape kits reported as “tested” in the Phoenix metropolitan area over the past five years, many had not completed step two of the testing process. Most police departments in the area count a kit as “tested” when they turn it over to the crime lab, regardless of whether the lab has actually tested it.

In 2004, Hilary Peele, a rape victim-turned-advocate, was raped at knifepoint by a stranger who broke into her apartment in Tempe, Arizona. She reported the assault to police and underwent a rape kit examination. The detective assigned to her case told her the results would come back in two weeks. When Ms. Peele called the detective two weeks later, she was told it was going to be another two weeks. This went on with Ms. Peele calling every two weeks for eight months. She said:

“You start to lose hope. You start to lose faith that your kit will ever be tested. That your attacker will ever be caught.”

Finally, after eight months, Ms. Peele learned that the DNA evidence from her kit matched to a previous rape case, meaning the perpetrator had raped at least one other woman. She believes she would not have gotten the results as quickly had she not called every two weeks.

At Joyful Heart, we believe every rape kit booked into police evidence should be tested. In addition to establishing the identity of an unknown perpetrator, rape kit evidence can confirm a suspect’s contact with a victim, corroborate the victim’s account of the sexual assault, link a suspect to other crimes and exonerate innocent defendants. Not testing rape kits sends the message to survivors that their cases don’t matter. It also sends the message to perpetrators that they can escape punishment for rape. Testing kits demonstrates a commitment to survivors to do everything possible to help them find justice and healing.

These kits are part of an initial wave of 200 kits that have been sent for testing under the National Institute of Justice’s grant to address Detroit’s backlog of over 11,000 untested rape kits. The DNA evidence in these 21 cases matched to the DNA profiles of suspected offenders involved in at least one other rape case, according to ClickOn Detroit. In some cases, the evidence matched to the DNA in up to five other cases, according to the article.

Testing a rape kit can identify a potential assailant, confirm a suspect’s contact with a victim, corroborate the victim’s account of the sexual assault and exonerate innocent defendants. And of course, testing rape kits can connect suspects to other crimes.

In addition to identifying the possible serial rapists, the DNA evidence in the batch of 153 kits has yielded another 38 DNA matches in the database, according to The Daily Beast. All of the cases now need to be investigated, says Wayne County Prosecutor Kym Worthy in the article.

“People think when you get a CODIS hit, we can just go out and arrest that person,” she says in the article. “But a DNA hit is never the whole case. We have to go find the witnesses, do the old-fashioned kind of investigation. They’re cold cases—they’ve just been sitting there. We have to reinvestigate all these cases.”

“I say ‘reinvestigate,’ but some were never investigated properly, frankly,” Prosecutor Worthy adds.

We are happy to share with you that we have raised more than $5,500 through our GlobalGiving project to continue our work to end the backlog of untested rape kits and bring healing and justice to survivors of sexual assault.

We know that rape kit reform takes time—truly lasting change in the way our criminal justice system and we as a community respond to sexual violence will not come overnight. In our last GlobalGiving report, we gave you an introduction to our work in Detroit to end the city’s backlog of nearly 11,000 untested rape kits and support our collaborative partners through our Heal the Healers program.

Our commitment to end Detroit’s backlog of untested rape kits extends beyond supporting the wellness of police, social workers and prosecutors and today, we’d like to share another brief snapshot of what your funding is making possible.

Research on Victim Notification and the Rape Kit Backlog

With the goal of engaging and empowering survivors in the criminal justice system during rape kit reform, we are conducting critical research on victim notification, which is the process of being in contact with and updating survivors on the status of their rape kit evidence. Our research is not just informing our work in Detroit, but will also aid jurisdictions across the country that are working to end their own backlogs.

We have seen that when jurisdictions end their backlogs, arrest rates double and more perpetrators are convicted. Survivors experience healing and justice, perpetrators are held accountable and sexual violence is prevented.

Once a rape kit is turned over to police custody, the survivor generally does not have a legal right to be informed of the status of this evidence. Police are not obligated to share whether the kit is sitting in a storage facility or in line to be tested, or whether the evidence contained in it has linked to a perpetrator. It may be years—if at all—before a survivor hears from law enforcement about the rape kit, particularly in jurisdictions with very large rape kit backlogs.

Part of our role in Detroit is to help discover, navigate and implement best practices for conducting victim notification. For the past several months, Joyful Heart’s team has been conducting research on victim notification practices and procedures throughout the country that can serve as a model for Detroit as kits from thousands of survivors are tested.

There is very little written on the topic of victim notification, especially as it relates to a rape kit backlog. The significance of this research therefore has the potential to be great. With dozens of primary documents collected from agencies across the country and over 50 interviews with police officers, advocates, prosecutors, government officials, trauma experts and survivors—and many more still to come—we plan to share the findings of this research within the year. Our goal is for the results to serve as a resource—the first of its kind—to Detroit and jurisdictions across the country working to enact victim-centered rape kit reform.

“There are times [when] it feels very old, and there are times when it feels like it happened yesterday. If I could know that the kit was available and could be tested even 25 years later, and the DNA could be identified as belonging to a certain person or persons, I would be able to have that information [for] the rest of my life.”

“I have visions of my kit sitting on a shelf, of those police officers tearing up my report. That has an effect. I would want to know if the kit was tested, resources were used and someone did what they were supposed to. In some small way, it mattered.”

– Survivors who have never been notified about the status of their rape kits

Your donations are making it possible for us to conduct this research and create lasting rape kit reform—step by step, community by community. We thank you for continuing to stand with us in making a difference in the way we respond to sexual violence in the United States.

To make a donation and learn more about our GlobalGiving project, click here.

An eleven-member commission that the Attorney General’s Office convened also recommended a new policy that law enforcement agencies submit any untested kits to a state lab regardless of whether a decision has been made to prosecute. Previously, there had been no policy on submitting rape kits. According to the policy, these developments will ensure the entry of offender DNA into police databases.

Attorney General DeWine expects the amount of kits sent to Ohio crime labs will increase from 50 percent to 90 percent. He said:

“We want to assure victims of sexual assault their cases will not be forgotten. We are determined to bring these rapists to justice.”

While the extent of Ohio’s rape kit backlog is unknown, the attorney general’s office reported it has received 2,000 backlogged cases just from Cuyahoga County so far, which includes Cleveland. Ohio’s Bureau of Criminal Investigation (BCI) currently tests 1,000 rape kits per year and expects that number to rise to 1,500 in the first year after the hiring of the new forensic scientists and 3,000 kits the following year. BCI is prepared to commit “whatever resources are necessary” to process additional kits.

Attorney General DeWine has explained, “The new policy is fairly simple: if a crime was committed, the kit should be submitted. If a crime probably occurred, law enforcement should submit the kit for testing.”

Cathy Harper Lee, Executive Director of The Justice League of Ohio and member of the attorney general’s commission, adds:

“When we have a victim report to us, and we feel there is substantial evidence that a crime occurred and we’ve seen a kit that’s not being processed…there is tremendous concern that the victim is not getting justice, and the offender is staying in the community to commit more crimes.”

In addition to the new testing policy, the attorney general’s office announced that the Ohio Peace Officer Training Academy (OPOTA) will enhance its current sexual assault training courses to emphasize law enforcement interaction with survivors, advocates and medical personnel. In partnership with the Attorney General’s Crime Victim Section, OPOTA will also produce an online course “to bring victim-focused training to every officer in Ohio” at anytime and free of charge.

With a grant from the federal government’s Office on Violence Against Women, the team created the “400 Project” to test 400 randomly selected kits from the backlog in order to determine the nature of the evidence and what kinds of cases are connected to the backlog. Among the 400 tested kits was a fourteen-year-old kit containing DNA evidence linking Antonio Jackson, now 38 years old, to the 1997 home invasion and rape of a woman at gunpoint. It is alleged that Jackson broke into the victim’s home at 3:50 a.m. on February 17, 1997, held her at gunpoint and raped her while her children slept in the same bed. He now faces charges of first degree criminal sexual conduct and home invasion and felony firearm charges.

The 400 Project is the first phase in a multi-phase approach to eliminating Detroit’s backlog. Detroit is one of two cities participating in a grant funded by the National Institute of Justice (NIJ) to study, plan and implement rape kit reform. Joyful Heart is a collaborative partner in this effort. Out of the project, the NIJ hopes to create a national standard for rape kit testing. As expressed by John Collins, Director of the Michigan State Police Forensic Science Division:

This is such an emerging problem that has revealed itself on the national level. There’s not a national standard on how you make these decisions of what you test and in what order. In some extent, it’s like building the plane as you fly it.