[Senate Hearing 114-902]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
S. Hrg. 114-902
TAKING SEXUAL ASSAULT SERIOUSLY:
THE RAPE KIT BACKLOG AND HUMAN RIGHTS
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HEARING
BEFORE THE
SUBCOMMITTEE ON THE CONSTITUTION
OF THE
COMMITTEE ON THE JUDICIARY
UNITED STATES SENATE
ONE HUNDRED FOURTEENTH CONGRESS
FIRST SESSION
__________
MAY 20, 2015
__________
Serial No. J-114-19
__________
Printed for the use of the Committee on the Judiciary
[GRAPHIC NOT AVAILABLE IN TIFF FORMAT]
www.judiciary.senate.gov
www.govinfo.gov
__________
U.S. GOVERNMENT PUBLISHING OFFICE
52-978 WASHINGTON : 2025
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COMMITTEE ON THE JUDICIARY
CHARLES E. GRASSLEY, Iowa, Chairman
ORRIN G. HATCH, Utah PATRICK J. LEAHY, Vermont, Ranking
JEFF SESSIONS, Alabama Member
LINDSEY O. GRAHAM, South Carolina DIANNE FEINSTEIN, California
JOHN CORNYN, Texas CHARLES E. SCHUMER, New York
MICHAEL S. LEE, Utah RICHARD J. DURBIN, Illinois
TED CRUZ, Texas SHELDON WHITEHOUSE, Rhode Island
JEFF FLAKE, Arizona AMY KLOBUCHAR, Minnesota
DAVID VITTER, Louisiana AL FRANKEN, Minnesota
DAVID PERDUE, Georgia CHRISTOPHER A. COONS, Delaware
THOM TILLIS, North Carolina RICHARD BLUMENTHAL, Connecticut
Kolan L. Davis, Chief Counsel and Staff Director
Kristine Lucius, Democratic Chief Counsel and Staff Director
SUBCOMMITTEE ON THE CONSTITUTION
JOHN CORNYN, Texas, Chairman
THOM TILLIS, North Carolina RICHARD J. DURBIN, Illinois,
LINDSEY GRAHAM, South Carolina Ranking Member
TED CRUZ, Texas SHELDON WHITEHOUSE, Rhode Island
DAVID VITTER, Louisiana CHRISTOPHER COONS, Delaware
AL FRANKEN, Minnesota
Noah Phillips, Majority Staff Director
Joseph Zogby, Minority Staff Director
C O N T E N T S
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OPENING STATEMENTS
Page
Cornyn, Hon. John................................................ 1
Durbin, Hon. Richard J........................................... 3
Prepared statement........................................... 34
Grassley, Hon. Charles E......................................... 4
Prepared statement........................................... 36
Leahy, Hon. Patrick J............................................ 5
Prepared statement........................................... 37
WITNESSES
Berkowitz, Scott................................................. 12
Prepared statement........................................... 44
Byrd, Sarah Haacke............................................... 15
Prepared statement........................................... 68
Hearn, Skylor.................................................... 10
Prepared statement........................................... 53
Madigan, Lisa.................................................... 14
Prepared statement........................................... 60
Smith, Debbie.................................................... 8
Prepared statement........................................... 39
APPENDIX
Items submitted for the record................................... 33
TAKING SEXUAL ASSAULT SERIOUSLY:
THE RAPE KIT BACKLOG AND
HUMAN RIGHTS
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WEDNESDAY, MAY 20, 2015
United States Senate,
Subcommittee on the Constitution,
Committee on the Judiciary,
Washington, DC.
The Subcommittee met, pursuant to notice, at 2:34 p.m.,
Room 226, Dirksen Senate Office Building, Hon. John Cornyn,
Chairman of the Subcommittee, presiding.
Present: Senators Cornyn [presiding], Tillis, Cruz, Durbin,
Whitehouse, and Franken.
Also present: Chairman Grassley, Senators Leahy, Klobuchar,
and Blumenthal.
OPENING STATEMENT OF HON. JOHN CORNYN,
A U.S. SENATOR FROM THE STATE OF TEXAS
Chairman Cornyn. Good afternoon. This hearing of the
Constitution Subcommittee will come to order.
I want to begin by thanking our excellent panel of
witnesses for agreeing to be here today to share your concerns,
your experiences with this problem that does not get enough
attention, this rape kit backlog.
We look forward to hearing from you about the great work
you are doing and, of course, first and foremost, giving a
voice to those who need it the most.
The rape kit backlog is a national tragedy with serious
consequences for sexual assault survivors. By some estimates,
there are as many as 400,000 untested rape kits in America,
each one of them holding tremendous potential to help solve a
crime, take a serial rapist off the streets, or perhaps
exonerate somebody who has been falsely accused of a crime.
A rape kit is the forensic DNA evidence, of course,
collected from the body of the sexual assault victim following
a crime. These kits can include everything from swabs, bodily
fluids, hair, bed sheets, clothing and other personal items.
These are, of course, by their nature, invasive tests, the
person who also--and they also are part of what a victim of
crime has to endure after experiencing one of the most horrific
experiences in their life.
After a rape kit is collected, law enforcement agencies can
forward this evidence to a crime lab for testing, but,
unfortunately, we know many do not. The DNA from that kit may
be used by lab officials and law enforcement to search the
FBI's nationwide data base of criminal offender DNA, known as
CODIS.
Since so many sexual assailants are serial offenders, there
are very high CODIS hit rates in sexual assault cases. In other
words, the DNA from a rape kit is often the material difference
between a sexual predator going to jail or remaining free to
reoffend.
When rape kits remain untested and sitting on the shelf,
the consequences can be nothing short of devastating.
I know each of you have stories you could tell,
particularly Debbie Smith, but I met a woman from Dallas, Texas
by the name of Carol Bart. In 1984, Ms. Bart was sexually
assaulted at knife-point outside her Dallas apartment. After
she was attacked, she consented to a rape kit examination, but
her rape kit sat untested for 24 years on the shelf.
When it was finally tested against the FBI data base, it
yielded a match to a serial offender who had sexually assaulted
another woman only 4 months after he had attacked Ms. Bart.
Even more tragic, by the time Ms. Bart's rape kit was
cleared from the backlog, the statute of limitations had run on
her case, meaning, of course, her attacker could not be
criminally convicted of the crime against her.
We know, unfortunately, that there are many other examples
of this across the Nation.
Another brave Texan I met during the course of my work in
this area is Lavinia Masters. She was 13 years old when she was
sexually assaulted. Of course, you can imagine a 13-year-old,
asleep in her bed and then to be sexually assaulted. It is hard
to imagine something more horrific than that.
When she, too, reported her crime and consented to a rape
kit examination, she hoped it would help find the monster who
robbed her of her childhood, but instead her rape kit sat
untested for 20 years. When it was finally tested, it revealed
that a recidivist criminal had committed this terrible offense.
In other words, this was not the first time nor would it have
been the last time if he was not taken off the street.
Because her rape kit sat untested for so long, the statute
of limitations has run, as well. Once again, the rape kit
backlog meant that another victim had been denied justice.
Carol, Lavinia, brave people like Debbie Smith represent
only a few of the countless victims of the rape kit backlog
story and that is too many. Each and every untested rape kit
represents a real victim and their struggle for justice, and I
believe it is our responsibility to honor the bravery of these
survivors and to tell them that we are going to do everything
we can for our part to stand up for them and we will do
everything in our power to track down the people who have
assaulted them.
Fortunately, and this is beginning to be a little bit of a
good news story, legislators at the State level, victims, law
enforcement officials and lab professionals around the country
are working together, slowly but surely, to end this rape kit
backlog.
I am proud to say that Texas is leading the charge. In
2011, Texas joined Ranking Member Durbin's home State as one of
the first States in the Nation to enact a law requiring a
comprehensive audit of the rape kit backlog and the mandatory
testing of all sexual assault evidence. I know we will hear
more from the attorney general about that.
Just last year, the city of Houston finished clearing its
rape kit backlog of 6,600 kits, and so far, just out of the
6,600 kits tested, they have come up with nearly 1,000 CODIS
hits on these untested rape kits. Awareness of this effort has
grown and so has the movement to end the rape kit backlog
forever.
In 2011, Texas and Illinois were only two States with rape
kit backlog laws on the books. Four years later, we now have
some form of these laws on the books of at least 12 States.
That is real progress.
I am proud to say that Congress is continuing to take an
aggressive and bipartisan approach in the fight against this
backlog. In 2014, I was proud to work with Senators McConnell,
Leahy and Grassley to reauthorize the landmark Debbie Smith Act
through 2019. This legislation has been the law of the land for
more than a decade and it is a true success, touching the lives
of thousands of sexual assault victims by providing much needed
resources to test the rape kit backlog.
In 2013, I was proud to join Representative Ted Poe and
Senator Bennet in sponsoring legislation known as the Sexual
Assault Forensic Evidence Reporting Act, or the SAFER Act. This
legislation was signed into law in the last Congress, and it
strengthens the Debbie Smith Act by directing more funds to
test crime scene DNA and increases law enforcement--gives them
new resources to audit and to inventory the rape kit backlog.
It is hard to know how big the problem is unless we
actually do those audits, and that is a very important part of
this process.
While we need to continue to make sure that these important
programs are fully implemented, I look forward to hearing the
ideas of our witnesses and Subcommittee Members on what
Congress can do to continue this fight.
With that, I turn the floor over to Senator Durbin, the
Ranking Member.
OPENING STATEMENT OF HON. RICHARD J. DURBIN,
A U.S. SENATOR FROM THE STATE OF ILLINOIS
Senator Durbin. Thanks very much, Chairman Cornyn. Thanks
for this bipartisan meeting. I will ask that my full statement
be made a part of the record and try to summarize it quickly so
we can get to our important panel.
When you see a report from the CDC, they estimate about 1
out of every 5 women in America is going to be raped during the
course of their life, and then the National Crime Victimization
Survey tells us that between 2006 and 2010, 65 percent of rapes
and sexual assaults went unreported.
When a victim does report, has the courage after a sexual
assault to step forward and to report what happened to the
authorities, we have to do everything in our power to make
certain that the person responsible is held accountable.
Instead, thousands of victims have faced inexcusable
ongoing trauma as their rape kits went untested and their
rapist got away with the crime.
We recently had a column Nicholas Kristof wrote where he
interviewed the sheriff of Cook County, Tom Dart, a personal
friend of mine and the attorney general's. Tom went into a
small community south of Chicago, Robbins, Illinois, and he
found a locker filled with rape kits. They pulled out one of
the kits and had it tested. It was about a young woman in the
community. It had been collected. She was 14 years old when the
rape occurred, and it was years ago when it happened. Nothing
had been done.
After testing the kit, they found a DNA match, but the
statute of limitations had expired. Natasha's attacker could
not be prosecuted. How terrible could that be?
It is an indication of what may be happening in many parts
of the country. I am happy that the Chairman and I can point to
our home States and the efforts that have been made to try to
make sure that we reduce the likelihood of that happening.
Attorney General Madigan, who will testify, has been a
leader in that effort, and she will say a few words about it
when she is given her chance to testify.
We also have to make sure that beyond the testing of rape
kits, as important as that is, that we consider the sexual
assault epidemic facing our country. We need to focus on
preventing rape from occurring in the first place. We need to
provide law enforcement agencies with access to training on how
to respond to the traumatized victims.
As tested kits reveal suspects, we need to provide
investigators and prosecutors with the resources they need to
pursue the case, and we need to ensure that crisis centers and
victim assistance organizations have the resources to help
survivors.
Congress is doing, I think, an important thing in
appropriating $41 million last year to address the rape kit
backlog and develop a comprehensive approach to sexual assault
cases.
The House Commerce's Justice and Science Appropriations
Subcommittee included a continuation of this vital funding in
the FY 2016 bill. It is important that we give the resources to
these agencies of Government that are investigating and
prosecuting.
We also have to make sure that we reorder our priorities
when it comes to the way we spend money on fighting crime and
we are addressing that with some other bills that are before
this Committee.
Two of the members of this panel I invited and I will be
happy to introduce at the appropriate time. Let me turn it back
over to the Chairman.
Chairman Cornyn. We are happy to have the Chairman of the
Full Committee and the Ranking Member of the Full Committee
here with us. Senator Grassley.
OPENING STATEMENT OF HON. CHARLES E. GRASSLEY,
A U.S. SENATOR FROM THE STATE OF IOWA
Chairman Grassley. I would like to show my support and give
a short statement, because I want to help you and Senator
Durbin in any way I can.
Today the Judiciary Committee will hear from several
witnesses about untested DNA evidence from sexual assault
forensic exams. We will consider whether backlogs of untested
DNA evidence remain a problem despite the enactment of the 2004
Debbie Smith Act.
The Debbie Smith Act, which is named after our first
witness, originally passed Congress, with my support, as part
of the 2004 Justice for All Act. Congress last reauthorized
this important Federal statute in 2014. It sends funds to
States to help reduce backlogs of untested DNA evidence from
crime scenes and from convicted offenders.
Reducing such backlogs of untested DNA evidence is
critically important to survivors of sexual violence, as our
witnesses will testify today.
We are pleased to have Debbie here. I am going to skip over
a description of the crime against her because it is pretty
much repetitive of what you said, but it does not mean that I
pay any less attention to it.
This program has helped crime labs around the Nation
promptly analyze DNA evidence like that which was key to
identifying Debbie Smith's rapist. In this same period,
however, the demand for DNA testing has increased, as well,
because jurisdictions around the country have increased their
reliance upon forensic evidence as a crime-solving tool.
Because DNA evidence is now and likely will continue to be
such an important tool in identifying perpetrators of rape and
other crimes, it is crucial that the evidence be examined
timely. Collecting and analyzing such evidence is important to
catch offenders before they strike again.
It is completely unacceptable for forensic evidence from
crimes of sexual violence to sit untested for months or even
longer while rapists remain at large and statutes of
limitations are expiring.
Over the last decade, Members of this Committee have played
a very important role in ensuring that the Debbie Smith Act is
reauthorized and the DNA backlog reduction program is funded.
This year, I joined Senator Cornyn and 28 colleagues in calling
on Senate Appropriation leaders to again make this program a
priority.
I thank Senator Cornyn and Senator Durbin for their
leadership and, most importantly, in organizing this hearing
because this is a very important step to make sure we keep this
whole issue before the Congress.
Thank you.
Chairman Cornyn. Thank you, Senator Grassley. Senator
Leahy.
OPENING STATEMENT OF HON. PATRICK J. LEAHY,
A U.S. SENATOR FROM THE STATE OF VERMONT
Senator Leahy. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
This, as you know, is something--an issue that is very
close to me and one I have spent years working on.
When discussing this with Debbie Smith and her husband,
Rob, we talked about the fact that survivors of sexual assault
for too long have been ignored. They have been ignored or they
have been disbelieved, and the vast majority of them, of
course, are women.
When we let these rape kits languish on lab shelves, it
reinforces the terrible message that somehow these are second
class crimes. Each one of these kits represents a devastating,
traumatized survivor. We have got to move quickly on them. I
remember seeing her almost in tears the first time we talked,
Debbie, and you talked to me about how it was 7 years before
your kit was tested and the perpetrator was caught--7 years.
As I told you earlier today, my wife sent a second hug to
you because of how moved she has been talking with you and Rob.
When we first tried--worked to get the Debbie Smith Act passed
as part of the Justice for All Act in 2004, I remember Debbie
going from office to office with another good friend of ours,
Kirk Bloodsworth. I sat there in the corner a couple of times,
you will recall, just listening to your stories. He was the
first person to be exonerated from death row by DNA, the first
person. It was the personal appeal, it was not the numbers or
the statistics; it is when Senators of both parties sat there
and listened to them and realized we have got to do something.
We all hoped that your work would be over after getting
that and we realize it continues on. I remember September last
year, when I went to the Senate floor and asked unanimous
consent to reauthorize this important legislation. President
Obama signed the law a few days later. I know that commitments
I have with Senator Cornyn, we are going to reauthorize the
other important programs in the Justice for Act. I want to
publicly--I do not want to hurt him back in Texas, but I want
to publicly thank Senator Cornyn, Senator Grassley and others
for working on this. When we drafted the Leahy-Crapo Violence
Against Women Reauthorization Act of 2013, we dramatically
changed what was in the original Violence Against Women Act,
and we increased specific dedicated funding to sexual assault
response, including greater attention to collecting and
processing rape kits.
It is not going to be easy, but a lot of it requires the
commitments not only in Texas and others in their States. My
home State of Vermont has committed professionals of Vermont
Forensic Laboratories, the Vermont Network Against Domestic and
Sexual Violence. It is also going to require money.
We all say we are in favor of this, but we have got to have
specific laws. We have got to make sure it is done and start
accepting the fact that when these things happen, let us go out
and get the person.
I was a prosecutor, I know what that means. We should not
have the case that Senator Durbin talked about where, oh, we
finally get around to this; oh, gosh, too bad, the statute of
limitations has run. Imagine if that had been done right at the
time it should have been. That rapist would have gone to jail.
I wonder how many other people were victims in between?
I will put my full statement in the record, Mr. Chairman. I
have already told Debbie and Rob that, like so many others, I
am double-booked somewhere else, but I think she knows my
commitment to this.
Chairman Cornyn. Thank you, Senator Leahy.
We will now proceed to hear from our witnesses. I feel like
the first one, Debbie Smith, has already been introduced, but
let me just say that she is one of the foremost champions that
we have involving this issue in the country. Thank you for
being here.
Debbie is the founder of an organization known as Hope
Exists After Rape Trauma, or HEART. Of course, her achievements
are too long to list here, but I look forward to hearing more
about her update on the work she is doing around the country
and any other light she can help us shed on this continuing
issue.
Next, our second witness is Mr. Skylor Hearn, a former
Texas Ranger, and, as we say in Texas, one riot, one ranger. He
currently serves as the assistant director of the Texas
Department of Public Safety and in that capacity, he is
overseeing the implementation of the Texas rape kit backlog
law.
I am proud of the great work he and other folks are doing
there at the Department of Public Safety, and we are glad you
are here today.
Our third witness is well known here on the Hill, Scott
Berkowitz, who we have worked with for a long time on these
issues. He is the founder and president of Rape, Abuse and
Incest National Network, or RAINN. RAINN is the Nation's
largest anti-sexual assault advocacy group and operates the
National Sexual Assault Hotline. In his role as president of
RAINN, Mr. Berkowitz has played an instrumental role in
advocating for victims and fighting for legislation to take
criminals off the street: the Debbie Smith Act, the DNA
Fingerprint Act, and the SAFER Act.
I look forward to hearing more about Mr. Berkowitz's work
and RAINN's priorities.
With that, let me ask Senator Durbin to do the honors of
introducing our next witness.
Senator Durbin. Thanks, Mr. Chairman. The next witness is
Attorney General Lisa Madigan from my State of Illinois. She is
a good friend and she was just elected to her fourth term. She
is the longest-serving woman attorney currently serving in the
United States.
She has done a lot of great work over the years, but
particularly when it comes to this subject. Her work on the
Illinois Sexual Assault Evidence Submission Act in 2010 was the
first of its kind in our Nation. She currently co-chairs the
statewide Sexual Assault Working Group in my State.
Before being elected as attorney general, she served in the
Illinois Senate, along with a former U.S. Senator from
Illinois, Barack Obama, and worked as a litigator for a Chicago
law firm.
Attorney General Madigan is a graduate of the highly
regarded Georgetown University and the Loyola University
Chicago School of Law.
Attorney General Madigan previously testified before this
Committee on the student debt crisis. I am glad she is with us.
Our final witness is Sarah Haacke Byrd, the management
director of the Joyful Heart Foundation, an organization
seeking to heal, educate and empower survivors of sexual
assault, domestic violence and child abuse.
Before joining Joyful Heart, she was the director of
operations for the Bellevue/New York University Program for
Survivors of Torture. Sarah is a graduate of the University of
Minnesota-Twin Cities and the Case Western Reserve University
Weatherhead School of Management.
We thank her, as well.
Chairman Cornyn. If I can ask each of the witnesses,
please, to stand.
[Witnesses are sworn in.]
Chairman Cornyn. Thank you. Please have a seat.
Debbie, would you care to make an opening statement?
STATEMENT OF DEBBIE SMITH, SEXUAL ASSAULT
SURVIVOR, FOUNDER OF HOPE EXISTS AFTER RAPE
TRAUMA (HEART), WILLIAMSBURG, VIRGINIA
Ms. Smith. I want to say it is an absolute privilege to be
here today and I appreciate, Senator Cornyn, you asking and
giving me that privilege.
Before I begin, I would like to be allowed the opportunity
to publicly thank Senator Cornyn and Senator Leahy for being
such huge supporters of changing the issues that surround
victims of sexual assault.
Your commitments to these issues speak of your devotion to
victims of crime and their families. Especially, your staff
members have always made themselves available to me at any time
I had what may seem to them to be silly or unusual questions,
but they were always there and ready and willing to help me
out.
I thank both of you for all of your help.
Lifetime Television once described me as an advocate by
accident and it is a true statement because I can tell you that
I would have never purposely taken this place. Before I got
here, there were already those, like NCBC, who were working
diligently to pave the road for others.
I am always humbled to sit at the table with Scott
Berkowitz from RAINN, another one of those who purposely chose
to find a way to make the path easier for sexual assault
victims.
Around this wonderful country of ours, there are many more,
too numerous to name, who fight the war on sexual assault on
behalf of sexual assault victims and I am in awe of their
commitment.
As the years have passed, we continue to have others join
us, such as Joyful Heart, to join this continuing battle. As a
victim of this horrific crime, I am overwhelmed by the
dedication of these professionals.
My personal experience as a rape victim provides me with
the understanding of the devastation of this crime, and I
believe that with devastation comes knowledge, and with
knowledge comes responsibility. This vivid understanding of
knowledge and responsibility has changed my life forever.
I truly believed that March 3, 1989 would be the last day
that I would feel the loving touch of my husband's embrace or
hear the precious voices of my children say, ``I love you,
Mom.'' It was on that Friday afternoon that a stranger entered
my home, threatening to kill me if I screamed. He then
abducted, blindfolded, and led me to the woods behind my home,
where he robbed and repeatedly raped me.
This day was the day that I was raped, and it also became
the day that this particular basket came into my life. This is
Basket Number 6, and it has never held anything of any real
value, nothing of any monetary value or worth. It used to hold
a pair of Reebok tennis shoes. No big deal, except for they
were my very first pair of name brand tennis shoes because it
just seemed there was not enough money after buying shoes for
the children.
There was an Aigner purse and a matching wallet emptied of
all of its cash; again, nothing of much monetary value, worth
more than the shoes combined, but they still did not carry an
enormous price tag, except for the fact they were a Christmas
gift from my husband. He worked overtime so that he could
afford to buy me the matching set.
Basket Number 6 also held a pair of no name jeans, not any
great expense there, except for they were my very favorites,
because, you see, and every woman in here can understand, they
fit just perfect in the waist and the hips both at the same
time.
There was also a sealed envelope containing pubic hairs,
vials containing a cotton swab, and a pair of semen-stained
underwear, definitely nothing of value. All of these things
were stored in this ordinary wire basket. None of these
ordinary items were of any real value unless, of course, they
happened to belong to you.
After being raped, I struggled with trying to live with the
memories of that day. For 6\1/2\ years, the smell of this man's
breath, the touch of his cool, damp coat sleeve around my neck,
and the sight of his black rubber boots were all stored in my
memory, and the sound of his voice in my ears reminding me,
``Remember, I know where you live and I will come back to kill
you if you tell anyone.''
All of these things were stored in my mind, unwilling to be
discarded. I needed peace, security, and I desperately wanted
to feel safe again. I had no hope that I would ever attain this
vital relief. I thought I had found a fate worse than death,
and it was living, and it was living with the fear that this
man would fulfill his promise to return and to kill me or,
maybe worse, he would kill my children.
I merely existed for those 6\1/2\ years, as fear held my
heart and my soul within its grip, choking out any joy of life.
I became suicidal, seeking peace and rest from the pictures
that played in my mind without warning.
Basket Number 6 has always been filled with what seemed
like insignificant items, but it was this very Basket Number 6
that stored my rape evidence kit that would deliver peace to my
heart and allow me to truly live again. It held fragments of my
life that was lived. It held answers to my questions, solutions
to my fears, and peace for my very soul.
All of those resolutions were confined--were confined to
this ordinary 11-inch-by-12-inch ordinary wire basket, sealed
with red evidence tape.
On July 26, 1995, we received the news that DNA cold hit
had revealed the name of my rapist. He was already in prison
for another crime. The torment was finally over, and I knew
where he was. My family was safe. Basket Number 6 was finally
allowed to speak.
Basket Number 6 now sits alone on my bookshelf in my home
and it still holds nothing of any great monetary value, but in
my heart, it holds the memory of a day that had gone terribly
bad, a day that I thought that I would never recover.
Before it was brought to my home, Basket Number 6 sat
behind a locked door lined up with many others just like it, on
a shelf in a darkened room, doing exactly what it was fashioned
to do. Basket Number 6 has long been emptied of its original
contents and now sits on that shelf as a permanent reminder to
me of the hundreds of thousands of other baskets, boxes and
bags that still have pieces of someone's lives in them.
It is for them that I am here today and it is for them that
I will continue to do all I can to get these kits off of the
shelves of police evidence rooms and in the labs. It is for the
victims represented by the letters and news articles in three
different boxes that I have that I keep fighting for their
right to justice.
Because someone cared, these ordinary items stored in an
ordinary wire Basket Number 6 brought life to truth and that
truth finally rendered justice.
Because someone continues to report to work, Basket Number
6 has been emptied. A rapist has been identified. Justice has
been rendered and future victims have been spared.
A survivor has found new joy, a family and husband
restored, and a community reunited. Every victim represented by
those baskets, boxes and bags with viable evidence deserves to
have a voice.
The day they allow that evidence to be taken from their
bodies, they did everything that we have asked them to do. They
endured a 4 to 6 hour intrusive, humiliating exam that they may
have an opportunity for justice.
It is their right. We owe them that opportunity, and it is
just simply the right thing to do.
Thank you.
[The prepared statement of Ms. Smith appears as a
submission for the record.]
Chairman Cornyn. Thank you for that powerful statement,
Debbie.
Mr. Hearn.
STATEMENT OF SKYLOR HEARN, ASSISTANT DIRECTOR,
TEXAS DEPARTMENT OF PUBLIC SAFETY, AUSTIN, TEXAS
Mr. Hearn. Chairman Cornyn, Ranking Member Durbin, other
honorable Members of the Senate Subcommittee, my name is Skylor
Hearn, and I serve as an assistant director with the Texas
Department of Public Safety. It is an honor to appear before
the Subcommittee today and participate in the dialog on this
critical issue of untested rape kits in the United States.
My purpose today is to detail the achievements and progress
underway in the State of Texas to address this issue and
identify the successes, lessons learned, and remaining steps in
our effort. My full written testimony has been provided.
As a summary, this national issue relative to the thousands
of untested sexual assault kits across the country has focused
great attention on the rights of victims, criminal justice
practices, law enforcement efficiency, and the crushing demand
on forensic science laboratories.
The State of Texas has been proactive in identifying and
seeking resolutions through State legislative action. Texas
Governor Greg Abbott, both now and as Texas attorney general,
is a leading force and champion in this effort. What we have
determined in Texas, which likely mirrors other parts of the
Nation, is that several causative factors contribute to these
sexual assault kits not being tested. Some of these factors
include discretionary investigative or prosecutorial decisions
where suspect identity is not an issue; prosecutorial non-
acceptance due to suspect, victim or witness credibility
issues; and, victim reluctance to formally pursue criminal
charges.
The predatory aspect of those who perpetrate sexual assault
requires greater scrutiny to effectively address the impact of
human rights posed by these criminals and their acts. The
shifting nature of the Nation's population and the transitory
nature of some sexual predators have resulted in the need to
view these crimes in a different light.
There are many scenarios where sexual serial offenders
could escape detection by targeting a specific class of victim
or by committing crimes across multiple jurisdictions. What
could be viewed as an isolated date rape incident in one
jurisdiction may be the work of a serial date rapist with
similar allegations in other cities and in other States.
This is the dynamic landscape of sexual assault
investigations we face today.
The formal effort to address these issues in Texas began
with legislative action through the State's 82d legislative
session in 2011. The enabling legislation, Senate bill 1636,
addressed several important areas surrounding the issues of
untested rape kits, including establishing an end to
discretionary testing for criminal investigations; defining
active cases based on the existing statue of limitations,
regardless of whether the case is investigative or judicial
status; and, requiring every law enforcement agency and
forensic laboratory in the State to audit and report the total
number of applicable untested rape kits in its possession to
DPS.
The legislation required DPS to provide a report on the
total number of estimated untested kits. As a result of law
enforcement reporting at the time, Texas identified over 15,000
applicable untested rape kits statewide.
As of reporting this month, the number of reported untested
kits has climbed to more than 20,000.
In 2013, the 83d Texas Legislature appropriated funding to
DPS to coordinated and outsource the testing of the statewide
untested rape kits in this initiative. This process is fully
underway and we expect to complete the testing portion of this
initiative on every applicable kit in the State by November
2016.
While the issue of previously untested rape kits is being
identified and resolved, the future of forensic evidence
testing must still be championed. Mandatory submission and
testing of sexual assault kits impacts forensic services.
Laboratories will continue to need additional funding for
personnel, resources and instrumentation to meet the ever
increasing demands of forensic case work.
While beneficial in some areas, rapid DNA will offer little
or no benefit in expediting the analysis of crime scene
evidence.
Finally, while the efficiencies of this initiative can be
argued, the forensic results are unequivocal. Forensic DNA
evidence from untested rape kits is linking known offenders to
reported crimes. Forensic DNA evidence from untested kits is
linking previously unassociated cases together and identifying
serial offenders.
From a victims' rights and human rights perspective, this
initiative could be an extraordinary impact in providing a
measure of justice to current victims and in the prevention of
future crimes and victimization.
Thank you.
[The prepared statement of Mr. Hearn appears as a
submission for the record.]
Chairman Cornyn. Thank you, Mr. Hearn. Mr. Berkowitz.
STATEMENT OF SCOTT BERKOWITZ, FOUNDER AND
PRESIDENT, RAPE, ABUSE AND INCEST NATIONAL
NETWORK (RAINN), WASHINGTON, DC
Mr. Berkowitz. Thank you, Chairman Cornyn, Ranking Member
Durbin and Members of the Subcommittee, for convening today's
hearing on the rape kit backlog.
We believe that one of the greatest threats to public
safety is the fact that most rapists are never apprehended or
punished, leaving them free to commit more crimes with
impunity, and we believe that the rape kit backlog plays a big
role in this State of affairs, while also denying justice to
many survivors.
According to the Justice Department, this crime is both
pervasive, about every 2 minutes, another American is sexually
assaulted, and underreported. About two-thirds of rapes are
never reported to law enforcement. To make matters worse,
rapists are often serial criminals, assaulting many victims
over many years.
Forensic DNA is one of the best crime-fighting tools we
have. It enables law enforcement to focus in on a suspect. It
also identifies serial criminals, supports successful
prosecutions, and helps exonerate the innocent.
It helps bring justice to victims and helps take rapists
off the streets, making our communities safer and preventing
future assaults.
That is why the backlog of untested DNA evidence from
unsolved rape cases, the rape kit backlog, has been such a
priority for RAINN for so many years.
As you mentioned, Mr. Chairman, to the untrained eye, a
rape kit is not much more than a cardboard box or a very large
envelope with swabs and vials and packets to hold everything
from blood and bodily fluids to hair and fingernail clippings;
basically, whatever forensic evidence a rapist leaves behind.
Each kit is actually the result of a victim who sat through
an hours' long examination, often just moments after the
assault. The victim's body, now a crime scene, is examined in
minute detail. It is a sacrifice many victims are willing to
make to achieve justice, but when we do nothing with the
resulting evidence, we do them a great injustice.
In theory, once the exam is done and the report made, law
enforcement sends that box to a DNA lab for testing. That is
where the system often breaks down. When we speak of the
backlog these days, we are primarily talking about these cases
that are hidden from view, the rape kits, hundreds of thousands
by some estimates, that are stacked up, usually in law
enforcement warehouses, and have never been sent to the lab for
testing.
There is a little good news here. Through your leadership,
Chairman Cornyn, as you mentioned earlier, Congress last year
reauthorized the Nation's first and largest anti-backlog
initiative, the Debbie Smith Act, named for the courageous and
most tireless woman I know and dear friend, Debbie.
Congress has also funded a new initiative by the Bureau of
Justice Assistance to test more kits and help communities with
the downstream impact of testing, and the Manhattan district
attorney has announced that he is devoting funds to testing
nationally.
There has also been a lot of recent State activity, as was
mentioned. Illinois and Texas are pioneers, leading the way on
audits and testing. Together with our partners in the Rape Kit
Action Project, we are encouraging other States to step up to
count their kits and eliminate their backlogs.
Last year, 5 new States enacted such laws and this year
there are another 40 bills pending in 20 States.
The work is far from done and there are a number of steps
Congress can take to help. First, we need to ensure that
existing programs are implemented to the letter of the law and
in keeping with congressional intent.
For several years now, the Debbie Smith program, authorized
at $151 million per year, has been funded at just $117 million
per year. Still, that adds up to a lot of money. Over the last
10 years, through FY 2014, almost $1.25 billion has been
appropriated for DNA. Yet, in that time, only 51 percent of the
money went for backlog capacity and testing purposes, even
though that is, I believe, what Congress intended that it go
toward.
Congress, in passing the SAFER Act 2 years ago, instructed
that at least 75 percent of spending go toward testing cases
and making sure that labs have the capacity to meet demand.
Looking back at the last 10 years, if we had spent 75 percent
of these funds over the last decade instead of the 51 percent
we actually spent, that would have meant an extra $296 million
to put toward the backlog, which is enough to test almost
300,000 rape kits.
That might not have solved the entire problem, but we would
have come awfully close, and all that would have been without a
dollar of new Federal spending.
The SAFER Act also requires that at least 5 percent of
funds go to help law enforcement conduct audits of rape kits,
and it required that these audits be made public online. So
far, not a dollar has been made available for this purpose
under SAFER.
I urge the Members of this Committee, as well as
appropriators, to help fix that problem going forward.
SAFER also required the development of national protocols,
guidance that would be very helpful to the cities and States
now grappling with this issue. The guidelines were due more
than 6 months ago, but they have not yet been released.
The need is urgent. We need a public accounting
jurisdiction by jurisdiction of how many kits are left to be
tested. We also need to identify which ones should get
priority. After all, victims in cases in which the statute of
limitations will soon expire will never get another chance at
justice.
We owe it to survivors like Debbie and to the hundreds of
thousands who have not yet gotten a chance at justice to keep
this a national priority and get the job done. Thank you for
your role in that.
[The prepared statement of Mr. Berkowitz appears as a
submission for the record.]
Chairman Cornyn. Thank you, Mr. Berkowitz. General Madigan.
STATEMENT OF HON. LISA MADIGAN,
ATTORNEY GENERAL, STATE OF ILLINOIS
Attorney General Madigan. Thank you, Chairman Cornyn,
Ranking Member Durbin and Members of the Subcommittee, for the
opportunity to testify on this important topic of timely
testing of sexual assault evidence.
We know that sexual assault is occurring at epidemic
levels. In the United States, nearly 1 in 5 women will be raped
during their lifetime. Sexual assault is too often a reality
and a persistent threat in our homes, our neighborhoods, on
college campuses, on military bases, and on Tribal lands.
In contrast to the disturbingly large number of women
sexually assaulted is the distressingly low number of women who
report it. Studies indicate reporting ranges from 10 to, at
most, 35 percent, and, in Illinois, the latest numbers reveal
that less than 15 percent of reported rapes result in arrest.
We know the main reason that women do not report rape is
that they do not believe their crime will be taken seriously,
and these unconscionably low numbers justify their concerns.
Recently, survivors and their advocates have demanded that
legislators and law enforcement focus on the horrific failure
of our criminal justice system to prevent and properly respond
to sexual assault. The failure of police to process rape kits
is indicative of the overall problem.
Five years ago, Human Rights Watch investigated unsubmitted
rape kits in Illinois. Based on the police departments that
responded, HRW determined that of 7,494 rape kits collected,
only 1,474 could be confirmed as tested.
In response to these shocking findings, I drafted and
worked to pass the Sexual Assault Evidence Submission Act. As
you have heard, this was the first State law of its kind in the
country. It required two things: first, the identification and
testing of previously unsubmitted rape kits and, second, the
creation of a statewide protocol to submit new rape kits to the
crime lab within 10 days.
This law resulted in the testing of over 4,000 previously
unsubmitted kits. The results: 969 matches in the Federal CODIS
data base. This massive failure to test rape kits resulted in
the criminal justice system failing to protect public safety
and failing to provide justice for sexual assault survivors.
How do we ensure that rape kits are properly collected,
submitted and tested in a timely manner?
Currently, I am co-chairing a sexual assault working group
in Illinois comprised of law enforcement, prosecutors, forensic
scientists, and advocates to identify the barriers that prevent
the efficient reporting, investigation and prosecution of
sexual assault cases.
From what we have learned, I propose the following: first,
all States should have a law that requires all rape kits be
submitted for testing. Second, we must institute mechanisms to
ensure that police comply with the law and submit all rape kits
for analysis. We can require tracking systems to ensure
accountability and satisfy chain of custody concerns.
Third, forensic labs need sufficient funding and resources
to test all the evidence they receive. Fourth, labs should
undertake efficiency reviews.
Those measures are not enough. We must also recognize and
rectify the other significant barriers that prevent sexual
assaults from being investigated and prosecuted. The most
important change necessary for successful sexual assault
investigations and prosecutions is proper training for law
enforcement and prosecutors.
The fact is that often rape kits are unsubmitted for
testing because of a blame-the-victim mentality or because
investigators mistrust the survivor's story. I have learned
that too often police avoid testing rape kits by unilaterally
deciding not to pursue an investigation.
In fact, at a recent summit I held on campus sexual
assault, a police officer stated that he learned at the police
academy that 80 percent of sexual assault allegations are
false.
It is also critical that trained sexual assault nurse
examiners are available to all victims of sexual assault 24
hours a day, 7 days a week. SANEs are needed to dramatically
improve the collection of evidence and provide a compassionate
response to the victim. In Illinois, my office has trained over
1,200 SANEs, but there are only 3 hospitals that I know of that
have 24/7 SANE programs.
It is clear that our country's culture surrounding sexual
assault and law enforcement's response to it must change. We
must support survivors from the moment they report their crime
or offenders will never be held accountable.
The United States is still a long way from assuring the
safety of women and girls, boys and men from sexual assault and
its traumatic aftermath.
I thank the Committee for this opportunity to testify and I
welcome your questions.
[The prepared statement of Attorney General Madigan appears
as a submission for the record.]
Chairman Cornyn. Thank you very much. Ms. Byrd.
STATEMENT OF SARAH HAACKE BYRD,
MANAGING DIRECTOR, JOYFUL HEART
FOUNDATION, NEW YORK, NEW YORK
Ms. Byrd. Chairman Cornyn, Ranking Member Durbin, Members
of the Subcommittee, thank you for inviting the Joyful Heart
Foundation to testify today.
On behalf of our founder and president, Mariska Hargitay,
our CEO, Maile Zambuto, our board, staff and volunteers, and,
most of all, the survivors we have the deep privilege to serve,
it is an incredible honor to be here to talk about this
important issue.
The Joyful Heart Foundation was founded in 2004 with the
mission to heal, educate, and empower survivors of sexual
assault, domestic violence, and child abuse and to shine a
light into the darkness that surrounds these issues.
Our vision is bold and ambitious--one of a world without
violence. Since 2010, the Joyful Heart Foundation has made the
elimination of the rape kit backlog our top priority. Through
partnerships with Federal, State and local government,
nonprofit organizations, law enforcement, advocates, and
survivors, we are working to bring attention, critical funding
and reforms to improve the criminal justice response to sexual
violence.
Ending the rape kit backlog will take a coordinated effort
and deep commitment at all levels of government. Elected
officials must ensure that sufficient funding is dedicated to
process untested rape kits, to investigate and prosecute those
cases, to implement a survivor-centered approach to victim
notification and reengagement, and to require law enforcement
to keep track of every kit booked into evidence and to make all
that information available to the public.
Because most jurisdictions do not have a system for
tracking or counting rape kits, we cannot be sure of the full
extent of the rape kit backlog in the United States. What we do
know is that each of these kits represents a lost opportunity
to bring healing and justice to survivors and accountability
for perpetrators.
While the road ahead to full and lasting change is long,
the good news it that reform is happening. This year more than
20 State legislatures have passed legislation or have bills
pending requiring sexual assault kit audits or some kind of
mandatory kit submission timeline.
These laws will extend what we know about the true extent
of the backlog.
Detroit has become one of the best examples of what a city
can do when it has the political will to address its backlog.
In 2009, Wayne County Prosecutor Kym Worthy's office discovered
11,341 untested rape kits in a police storage facility.
The county received funding from the National Institute of
Justice to create a multidisciplinary team, which included
Joyful Heart, to study the causes of the backlog and develop a
plan to move forward with reform.
As of May 2015, Detroit's initiative has resulted in 1,133
DNA matches and the identification of 288 potential serial
rapists. The DNA from these kits is linked to crimes in 31
States, from Alaska to New York, Texas to Illinois.
The results underscore what we know about sex offenders--
that they rape again and again, they commit all kinds of
crimes, and they often move from State to State, community to
community.
Real reform begins when we extend a jurisdiction's
backlog--when a jurisdiction's backlog is revealed. Cities must
then confront the enormous task of finding the resources to
implement comprehensive reform. The Federal Government has
risen to this challenge. We are grateful to the President, Vice
President and Congress for last year's creation of the new $41
million grant program which provides communities with the
critically needed resources to test their backlog kits and to
implement comprehensive reforms.
Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance has also stepped up
to contribute $35 million in funding for jurisdictions to test
their kits. Joyful Heart is a proud partner in this effort.
As more States and jurisdictions enact policies to reform
law enforcement practices around rape kit testing, the need for
funding will increase. An additional $41 million was requested
in President Obama's FY 2016 budget request and the House of
Representatives announced its inclusion in the FY 2016 commerce
bill last week.
We hope we can continue to count on your leadership and
advocacy for these much needed funds as the appropriations
process continues in the Senate.
We thank you for the attention you have paid to this issue
today. As Mariska has often said, the rape kit backlog is one
of the clearest and most shocking demonstrations of how we
regard these crimes in our society. Testing rape kits sends a
fundamental message to survivors of sexual violence that they
matter, that what happens to them matters, that their cases
matter. We must come together to solve this crisis. Survivors
deserve nothing less.
Thank you.
[The prepared statement of Ms. Byrd appears as a submission
for the record.]
Chairman Cornyn. Thank you, Ms. Byrd.
We will now proceed with a round of questions and alternate
across the aisle here, so to speak.
I think, Mr. Hearn, you and perhaps Attorney General
Madigan mentioned this and maybe Mr. Berkowitz. One of the
things that seems to me that has changed about the culture of
testing rape kits is that previously, local law enforcement
officials would make a decision not to test a rape kit if, for
example, the identity of the assailant was known or for some
other discretionary reason.
Can you talk to the importance of the issue of uniformity
of testing or reducing the discretion available to local law
enforcement when it comes to testing these rape kits?
Mr. Hearn. Yes, sir. I think it--to address the issue as a
whole, you have got to have a stopping point so it does not
reoccur and the only way to do that, in our opinion, is through
the legislative action of ending discretionary testing.
By requiring it or mandating testing on all criminal
investigations, you relieve the burden of those discretionary
decisions from law enforcement and prosecutors and the testing
becomes mandatory. Across the State, everything is the same,
and across the Nation, if it was done in all States.
Chairman Cornyn. That has been a revelation to me, but it
strikes me that many times local law enforcement investigating
a sexual assault would look at the one crime and think that,
well, maybe this rape kit will not shed light on this crime
because we know who the assailant was, maybe there would only
be an issue of consent or something of the nature.
In fact, we have learned that not only will it help convict
people who commit these crimes, it can actually stop people who
commit serial offenses, which they typically do, Ms. Byrd and
others mentioned. They do not just do it one time and go home.
Then the third, at a time when we are all concerned, as we
should be, about people being falsely accused, it can have a
lot of power to exonerate people who have been falsely accused.
I just think that a lot of people have not--we have not
thought as broadly and as deeply as we should about the power
of this incredible evidence.
Money is a problem, and these are local crimes, typically,
investigated by local police departments who may or may not
have the resources to do it. They may not have access to a
forensic lab that has the sort of trained personnel, the sort
of state-of-the-art equipment or the like.
I would just like to get the reaction from some of you. Are
the things that we ought to be looking at in terms of forensic
laboratories--I know Congress can help in terms of standards.
We probably cannot help create a forensic laboratory for every
jurisdiction that would like one. That is very expensive. I
would be interested in Senator Tillis' view from North
Carolina, formerly Speaker of the House, how he regards this
issue.
Is there some way that we can bring down the cost of
testing rape kits and try to improve the uniformity of the labs
and the expertise that they have to offer?
General Madigan, do you have any views on that?
Attorney General Madigan. I think you can certainly make
sure that the labs that are out there are running efficiently,
which would reduce both the time and, hopefully, the cost that
is incurred. As you point out, I think the number one plea that
we hear from our State police, crime labs and the forensic
scientists is that they are overwhelmed, and while it is an
important step forward that States are passing laws requiring
the testing of all kits and requiring the submission of
previously unsubmitted kits, I do know that they find that
overwhelming.
In Illinois, the commentary is that they will anticipate 70
more kits per month coming in, so hundreds during the year, and
that they would need to have at least 5 more forensic
scientists hired. The financial resources are absolutely
imperative to make sure that we do not continue to have a
significant backlog.
Chairman Cornyn. I know chain of custody of the evidence is
very important in any criminal investigation. Local law
enforcement is probably loathe to outsource some of this
testing and every community has a certain amount of pride at
having their own forensic lab.
My own experience, when I was attorney general, not just in
this area, but, for example, in paternity testing in connection
with our child support enforcement program, we found that the
cheapest and most efficient way to do this would be to contract
on a competitive bidding basis with a national laboratory, not
necessarily to try to recreate another lab in every community
or in every State.
I would just be interested if you have any light you can
help us shed on that. Mr. Berkowitz, do you have any opinion in
that regard?
Mr. Berkowitz. Yes. I think you are absolutely right that
there is a lot of private lab capacity out there, and I think
many States have found that that is the most cost-efficient way
to go, because dealing with the backlog is a sudden rush of
thousands of cases, if it is a big city, and then it is
hopefully done.
Staffing up and bringing in all the new equipment you need
to expand your State lab or your local lab is not always as
efficient as using the private capacity that is out there.
Chairman Cornyn. I will close with this. People might
wonder why is the Federal Government concerned with something
that frequently is viewed as a local crime or a State-based
crime. Given the interstate nature of this crime, as many of
you have mentioned, the transient nature of the assailant going
from community to community, maybe State to State, the
importance of having the CODIS or the FBI's DNA data base and
making sure that the quality of the evidence that that matches
against, I think there is, at least to my mind, clearly a
strong Federal interest in this matter, as well.
We need to figure a way to work efficiently at the local,
State and the Federal level. Senator Durbin.
Senator Durbin. Thanks, Mr. Chairman.
I want to try to trace, from your personal experience, Ms.
Byrd and Attorney General Madigan and others who might know,
who pays for what as we talk about this.
We have a situation that I referred to earlier with our
Cook County Sheriff Tom Dart. He goes to Robbins, Illinois. It
is a very small, very poor town, with not a very professional
police department. He discovers in a locker this accumulation
of rape kits that have been sitting there for years.
We have talked about Detroit and finding 11,000 untested
rape kits there.
Under the ordinary course of events--let me start with you,
Attorney General Madigan--under the ordinary course of events,
who starts paying when the investigation is underway, the
collection of the rape kit, the forwarding of it to a
laboratory, the forwarding of that to prosecutors and such?
Attorney General Madigan. You ask a very interesting
question because we have a bill pending right now in the State
of Illinois Legislature to ensure that after a rape kit has
been collected, that the victim is actually not being billed
for the medical collection of it.
Senator Durbin. That happens?
Attorney General Madigan. Unfortunately, that does happen
and it should not be happening in order to receive Federal
funding. That is one of the issues that we are contending with
in our State.
Senator Durbin. Who ordinarily pays for the kit to be----
Attorney General Madigan. Then when it moves on, my
understanding is the vast majority of it is being paid for
through State funding that is also obviously supported with a
lot of Federal funding so that the labs are ultimately
incurring these costs, which can be anywhere from $500 to
$1,500, depending on how much evidence and how complex.
Senator Durbin. Let me take you back to the original
examination of the victim and let us say it happens in an
emergency room.
Attorney General Madigan. Correct.
Senator Durbin. Who pays the hospital bill?
Attorney General Madigan. It could be that the State of
Illinois will ultimately pay that. It could be that Medicaid
will pay that. It should never be a situation where the victim
is paying that, by law.
Senator Durbin. Does the police department ever end up with
responsibility for that?
Attorney General Madigan. I do not believe the police
department will ever end up with the responsibility of paying
for the actual evidence collection of the rape kit.
Senator Durbin. The kit moves from the emergency room to
the police department. Let us assume that for a moment.
Attorney General Madigan. In Illinois, that is correct,
although we are talking about the possibility of eliminating
that step and sending it straight to the crime lab.
Senator Durbin. That crime lab is run by our Illinois State
Police.
Attorney General Madigan. It is run by the State Police,
correct, but as Senator Cornyn mentioned, our State Police
actually does outsource some of their testing and I know that
Lake County outsources most of their testing. It is either
going to a State Police crime lab, of which we have seven
facilities in Illinois, or it is going to a private facility to
be tested.
Senator Durbin. After it has been tested at this police
laboratory, I assume that it is then forwarded to a prosecutor.
Attorney General Madigan. The information will initially go
back to the police department and it may also go to the
prosecutor's office if the police department has asked it to go
to the prosecutor's office.
Senator Durbin. Okay. Ms. Byrd, you talked about Detroit,
11,000 kits that had been accumulated and never tested.
Ms. Byrd. That is correct. In Detroit, they have raised
local funds. State funds have been dedicated to help them clear
their backlog, and private funds, as well. They are
outsourcing, in some cases, their kits to a private lab to help
them with the capacity.
Through the district attorney's fund in New York,
jurisdictions across the country will also have the opportunity
to do that if their State or local labs do not have the
capacity.
There is a resource and a personnel issue in crime labs,
and so it is one of the big challenges in some States. You are
seeing a wait in a crime lab over a year for a kit to be
tested. It is too long for an opportunity for justice to be
served sooner.
Senator Durbin. I mention this, we had a conversation
earlier, the attorney general and I did, and said what about
the statute of limitations running while we are waiting and you
might tell the panel what is happening in our State or at least
being considered.
Attorney General Madigan. I think, in part, in response to
the situation in Robbins, Illinois, that you brought up earlier
during the hearing, the State legislature is currently moving a
bill that I anticipate will pass during the spring session that
would toll the statute of limitations until the test is
actually completed.
God forbid it is 6 years or it is 2 years or 1 year,
whatever that is, the statute of limitations will not start
running until the kit has actually been tested and those
results returned.
Senator Durbin. It might be interesting to see how many
States have responded that way.
Thank you very much. Thanks for your testimony.
Chairman Cornyn. Senator Tillis.
Senator Tillis. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Thank you for
having a hearing on this important subject.
Ms. Byrd, I think I am going to direct my first question to
you. I know that the Joyful Heart Foundation issued a press
release, I think it was called the Accountability Project, and
in that press release, my home county, Mecklenburg County, had
some 1,000 untested kits. Those are untested, not part of the
backlog.
I had my office reach out to the Criminal Investigation
Bureau for Charlotte, the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police
Department, and wanted to get a little bit more information on
it. They have indicated to us that a number of those were cases
not tested because the victim chose not to testify or the case
was closed for some other reason.
I am just trying to get to a point to where we are
measuring the right numbers here. My question to you is what
are your thoughts and your organization's thought as to whether
or not every kit should be tested? Even in instances where the
case may be closed or the victim has not granted authority,
what are your thoughts on that?
Ms. Byrd. First, let me say that a survivor's choice to
move forward with the case should always be honored and that
our approach to testing backlog kits should keep that in mind
and be survivor-centered.
What I will say, Joyful Heart Foundation believes that all
kits should be tested and dispute the idea that only some kits
should be tested. What we have learned through jurisdictions
across the country testing their kits is that what we thought
we knew about cases, about why to move forward with cases, has
not held up. We are seeing the results from the DNA matches
that we are seeing in places like Detroit, Cleveland, Memphis
in Illinois.
It begs the question why are we not testing these kits and
there is a myriad of reasons why we hear from law enforcement
they are not testing those kits.
We believe and the evidence is showing that in many cases,
survivors are not believed when they go to law enforcement and
so law enforcement makes a decision to not move forward with
the case. In some cases, there is victim blaming; why were you
out too late, why were you in this situation?
What we believe is that testing all kits eliminates that
law enforcement bias and affords survivors the full possibility
of receiving justice.
Senator Tillis. Thank you. I do know that at least in North
Carolina, we do not require the victim to pay for the test and
that is a product of legislation that was put in place a few
years back.
You mentioned Detroit. Are there any particularly good
examples or best practices of States that you would hold out as
something that would just move the Nation ahead if they were
more uniform across the other States, best practices, either
municipalities or at the State level?
Ms. Byrd. Yes. In fact, in Detroit, what we have seen work
is a collaborative, community-based, multidisciplinary approach
to reform. That is bringing together law enforcement,
prosecutors, community advocates, researchers to come together
and to tackle the process and to put in protocol systems in
place to ensure that the rape kit backlog does not happen
again, that the systemic failures that led to the problem in
the first place does not happen, to ensure that there are
protocols put in place for victim notification, for
reengagement in the case of a backlog, of bringing survivors
back in and engaging them with the criminal justice process.
We are seeing that model be replicated in Cleveland and in
Memphis and other cities, and I would say that the strongest
best practice is to bring everybody in the community together
to tackle the issue.
Senator Tillis. If any other panelist that has anything to
weigh in in terms of other best practices, that will be the
balance of my time.
[No response.]
Senator Tillis. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Chairman Cornyn. Senator Franken.
Senator Franken. Thank you, Mr. Chairman and Ranking
Member, for holding this hearing. Thank you all for being here
and for your tireless efforts to combat sexual violence and
ensure that survivors have access to the resources necessary to
begin their healing process.
The rape kit backlog was one of the first issues I worked
on when I first became a Senator almost 6 years ago. I was
proud, in 2013, when I was part of the Violence Against Women
Reauthorization Act. We included a provision that I authored
which guaranteed that the survivors of sexual violence do not
have to pay for the rape kit; that, again, the entity doing the
test gets any Federal funding at all.
Unfortunately, we are still here discussing how to handle
the backlog, and I am hopeful that we are going to see some
changes as a result of this hearing.
Attorney general, the prevalence of sexual violence in
communities across the Nation has received a lot of attention,
a lot of media attention lately, and that is valuable.
We need to focus on the ways that survivors of sexual
violence often face significant challenges in pursuing and
achieving justice, which often only adds to the trauma they
already experienced.
In your testimony, you note the need to increase access to
sexual assault nurse examiners, or SANEs. Can you explain why
these nurses are so critical to making sure that survivors have
access to the care that they need and better access to the
justice they deserve?
Attorney General Madigan. A sexual assault nurse examiner
is somebody who has received 80 hours of training--40 hours of
classroom training, 40 hours of clinical training--in how to
appropriately collect the evidence off an individual, in
addition to understanding the psychological impacts of being a
victim of a sexual assault. They can collect that evidence in a
compassionate way that does not further victimize or traumatize
that survivor.
Additionally, you then have somebody who can be a very good
expert witness if a prosecution is brought in one of those
cases. When you talk to survivors, those individuals who
actually went to a hospital ER or went somewhere where there
was a SANE practicing report a much greater level of
satisfaction with that very difficult, humiliating process.
It is absolutely imperative, we have found, to make sure
that we have appropriately trained individuals to collect the
evidence, to ensure both the healing process of the victim, as
well as a prosecution of one of these criminals.
Senator Franken. Thank you.
Mr. Berkowitz, Ms. Byrd, as a follow-up to my question of
the attorney general, can you describe just generally what kind
of access Americans currently have to adequately trained sexual
assault nurse examiners, especially in rural areas and in
communities most vulnerable to sexual violence?
Mr. Berkowitz. Sure. It is very inconsistent. The bigger
the area, the better the likelihood of finding a trained SANE
and one who is available particularly overnight. There
definitely needs to be more resources into making sure that
there are more SANE nurses that have this training nationally.
There is a lot of--particularly in rural areas and if you
go into parts of Alaska, it could it could be hundreds of miles
and a plane ride away to find a SANE. I think that is a
problem.
Just to add, I agree with everything General Madigan said
about SANEs. I would add just one point, which is that it has
been found that the likelihood of finding--of getting useable
DNA out of the rape kit goes up significantly if it has been
collected by a SANE who has had the training. That is another
public safety value to having SANEs out there.
Senator Franken. Ms. Byrd, do you have anything to add to
that?
Ms. Byrd. I think that for survivors who go to the
hospital, being treated with the compassion and the care that
this training provides is incredibly important. For women to
make the journey to go into the hospital, as we have talked
about, many women do not report the crime, but those who do go
and move forward and get the testing of a rape kit, it is
reassuring. It will mitigate some for the trauma of the
exposure to the rape kit, which is 4 to 6 hours. It is
invasive, it is extensive. We would like to see more across the
country.
Senator Franken. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Thank
you, to all of you. Ms. Smith, thank you for your testimony.
Chairman Cornyn. Senator Blumenthal.
Senator Blumenthal. Thanks, Mr. Chairman, and thank you for
holding this very important hearing. To all of our panel, thank
you for being here today.
At the beginning of your testimony, Attorney General
Madigan, you mentioned sexual assault on campuses as one of the
locations where very frequently this crime--we should never
forget that it is a crime no matter where it occurs--perhaps
most frequently happens.
I appreciate your reference to campus sexual assault
because it is one of the crimes that is most commonly
unreported and one of the places where female survivors may be
discouraged from reporting by the lack of services, such as
rape kits and nursing help.
I have a measure that I proposed, the Campus Accountability
and Safety Act, with a number of my colleagues, that would
require colleges to post information on their website regarding
the name and location of the nearest medical facility where an
individual may have a rape kit administered, as well as
transportation options to visit those kinds of facilities.
I also understand you hosted a summit on campus sexual
assault. I have held roundtables, 13 of them or more now,
around my State in Connecticut.
I wonder if you could tell us, and then maybe others on the
panel have views, whether that kind of access is important to
campus sexual assault survivors? Campus sexual assault
survivors may have special needs and there may be special
problems with reporting and seeking these kinds of services,
and perhaps you can talk about that issue.
Attorney General Madigan. Senator Blumenthal, I appreciate
your work and we certainly are supportive of what you are doing
in the State of Illinois.
As you mentioned, we recently held three summits around the
State of Illinois on campus sexual assault and we found that
there was an overwhelming response from university, college
professionals, as well as advocates and students and survivors,
and local law enforcement even, to talk about these issues.
It is absolutely imperative that campuses are following
Federal law and do, in fact, have policies in place, are
training individuals, and are absolutely providing information
and resources to students. When and if they become victims of
sexual assault, they know where they can go, they know who they
can turn to, and they know the relief that could be available
to them on their campus.
As you point out, many of these people on college campuses
who are victims of sexual violence do not end up reporting to
local law enforcement. Nonetheless, the accommodations that
they need should be available through their college
administration.
More and more we want to assure that those colleges and
universities are aware of their legal requirements and are
making those accommodations available so students can move
forward with their education and not be permanently traumatized
by sexual assault.
Senator Blumenthal. One of the other provisions that we
suggested is that there be memoranda of understanding, in
effect, protocols between the campus and college administration
and local law enforcement, whether it is police or prosecutors,
and I wonder to what extent any of the members of the panel
think that would be a good thing to do so that there are
informed--better informed survivors who know to go to provide
this evidence. It really is evidence that is necessary in a
prosecution.
Attorney General Madigan. Okay. I will respond. We have
seen that the reviews of that are mixed. When we had campus
lawyers and local law enforcement who had a good personal
relationship, they felt that they did not need a memorandum of
understanding in place. In other places, there was clearly a
disconnect and the idea of having that memorandum of
understanding seemed to force people to be put together in a
way that may not result in actual cooperation.
While I think it is a good idea, what we heard was most
effective was the universities and local law enforcement who
had, on their own, developed a relationship to address these
situations.
Senator Blumenthal. My time has expired. I want to thank
all of you for your great work in this area and thanks for
being here today. Thank you.
Chairman Cornyn. Senator Whitehouse.
Senator Whitehouse. Thank you very much, Attorney General
Cornyn--I mean, Senator Cornyn.
We are delighted to have this entire panel, which has been
very helpful, but I particularly want to welcome my fellow
attorney general.
We have, I think, passed two laws already to try to deal
with the rape kit problem. We have spent probably north of $1
billion, which, being from Rhode Island, I still think is real
money and we still have this very significant backlog problem.
I am interested in two questions, I guess. One is if we
were to try to solve this problem just with Federal carrots,
how big do you think the expenditure would need to be
considering that we have already spent $1 billion? Would it be
wise to pair something of a stick with the carrot so that burn
grant or other types of funding were contingent upon having
made progress against rape kit backlogs in order to try to
drive progress in this area?
Let me lead with you, Attorney General Madigan.
Attorney General Madigan. I think the carrot-and-stick
approach is a good idea. For instance, a number of us discussed
the idea of ensuring that there are audits done and tracking
systems in place so that there can be a measure of public
accountability.
To the extent that you are making funds available, I think
you also want to make sure that they are being used
appropriately and efficiently. There is a series of things that
can be done to make that a reality.
Senator Whitehouse. Ms. Byrd.
Ms. Byrd. I agree with the attorney general. Tracking,
auditing, greater transparency and accountability built into
the system will help ensure that the backlog does not continue,
that we continue to address the investigation and prosecutorial
resource needs, and I absolutely agree with that.
Senator Whitehouse. Within the--most of these cases are not
done by State prosecutors. Most of them are done by county
prosecutors, district attorneys. I do not know how many
Illinois has, but I bet you have a lot.
Is there a wide array, in the experience of anyone on the
panel, between the local best performers, people who are really
diligent about clearing their backlogs, trying to preserve the
DNA evidence, get cases made, and others for whom it is just
not that big a priority for them?
Do you think it is a pretty even march forward, in your
experience, across the country and jurisdiction by
jurisdiction, are there some real stars who are working really
hard and producing great results and some real laggards who
just have not picked up the stick at all?
Attorney General Madigan. Let me respond to part of your
question and then give somebody else on the panel an
opportunity to talk, as well.
The State of Illinois has 102 counties. Each county has a
State's attorney, who is your front line criminal prosecutor.
We have found that when they submit their DNA to the State
crime lab, completely different times. Cook County, they say it
takes them over a year to get results of DNA testing. Madison
County says 60 to 90 days. Lake County has started to
outsource, I think, in large part, for some of the reasons that
were addressed earlier; that it is more efficient and faster to
get their testing done by somebody other than the State police
crime lab.
Yes, there are some places doing much better in terms of
prosecutions than others.
Senator Whitehouse. Mr. Hearn.
Mr. Hearn. Senator, I think part of the issue, though, is
the changing mind set of this issue. People are diligent about
addressing the individual case and that may be a quick plea.
Again, if identity, for instance, is not a question in the
case, moving on to the next case has maybe been part of the
issue.
By changing the philosophy and the nature of these types of
investigations due to the predatory nature and the moving
around, it will change some of that thinking so that all kits
will be tested regardless of that individual case perspective
and viewed more conceptually.
Senator Whitehouse. Do you agree with Attorney General
Madigan, in your experience, that there is a wide array of
performance at the local, county sheriff level or are people
pulling forward pretty evenly?
Mr. Hearn. I guess it varies. There are, obviously,
resource issues at the rural side that are not faced at the
urban side, but the urban side has volume issues that the rural
side does not have. It varies between both.
Senator Whitehouse. Just to conclude, do you think if you
had to, you could come up with a handful of benchmarks that
every prosecutor's office, every police department or sheriff's
department ought to be attaining and make something contingent
on their reaching that standard?
Mr. Hearn. At least speaking for Texas, with our current
legislation that is in place that requires the submission
within 30 days of receipt by law enforcement, I think that
issue has been addressed.
It is the second half of the issue that falls on those that
oversee a crime lab that getting the testing done in a timely
manner, the resources needed to do that, and understanding that
while we are here talking about sexual assault kits, sexual
assault investigation includes other aspects of forensic
science, toxicology, latent prints.
There are other--a kit may not be taken in every sexual
assault investigation due to latency or some other issue. The
broad investigation of sexual assault includes a whole host of
forensic issues.
Senator Whitehouse. Understood. I have gone over my time. I
thank the Chairman.
Chairman Cornyn. Senator Klobuchar.
Senator Klobuchar. Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman. Thank
you for your leadership on this issue. We also have the good
news that yesterday our sex trafficking bill passed through the
House of Representatives, after a long journey. We are glad
about that.
I know many of you. You have been here before in front of
our Committee. As, Mr. Berkowitz, you know, we have a really
strong RAINN chapter in Minnesota, and I have met with them
many times.
The last time, when I remember back in December 2009, we
had a hearing and we heard from you--Ms. Smith, thank you so
much for coming back--from a guy named Steve Redding, who
headed up--when I was chief prosecutor in Hennepin County,
Minnesota's biggest county, we led most of the rape cases and
the DNA issues in our Supreme Court, which, Attorney General
Madigan, a guy named Steve Redding, who has done some really
good work in the area.
What I was first curious about was how you have seen things
change in the last 5 years. Have there been improvements--I do
not know who wants to chime in on that--since we have had that
hearing in terms of the backlog nationally.
Mr. Hearn. Senator, I will go first. For the State of
Texas, State legislation has dramatically changed the
environment of the investigation. The legislation ended
discretionary testing for criminal investigation purposes.
Every kit must be submitted and must be tested.
Senator Klobuchar. Do people know if the other States are
doing the same thing? Because I know our frustration would be
even if Minnesota was caught up, if someone was from another
State and committed a crime and they had a backlog, it hurt our
victims, just as if the perpetrator was from our State.
Mr. Hearn. I think others have spoken earlier that couple
of States have mandatory testing. Others are in the process of
doing similar legislation.
Senator Klobuchar. There have been some improvements, do
you think, nationally?
Mr. Hearn. I think so.
Senator Klobuchar. All right. Then the second thing I would
ask about was the VAWA reauthorization which is coming up
again. In that bill, we included a number of provisions to
allow grant funds to be used to support sexual assault nurse
examiners. I know Senator Franken touched on this in his
questions.
What more do you think can be done in this area? Anyone can
take it.
Attorney General Madigan. I am happy to. Do you want to
talk? One of the things that could be most helpful is to ensure
that hospitals are supportive of SANE programs. I have tried to
work with the Illinois Hospital Association to ensure that we
have 24/7 SANE programs in at least each trauma region of our
State, of which there are 11.
We are still at a point that I am only aware of three known
24/7 SANE programs in hospitals in the State of Illinois.
It is insufficient. Our office has trained over 1,200 SANEs
and when I talk to the SANEs, they tell me that they are not
supported in terms of the clinical training that they need and
that hospitals do not give them an opportunity to practice,
which, as we have talked about, for a variety of reasons,
traumatizes victims, does not allow us to collect DNA as well,
and does not provide us with as good a professional witness
during a prosecution.
You can do more or we can all find ways to do more to
support SANE programs across the country.
Senator Klobuchar. Anyone else want to chime in on that?
Ms. Byrd. I would just like to say that in a lot of--in
some of the rural areas, they have gone to like mobile units,
because whereas one area could not afford to have a SANE
program, then they have equipped this van and they actually go
to the victim. It still takes some time sometimes, but at least
they are making themselves available to a victim, which, in my
opinion, SANEs are also one of the best kept secrets in the
sexual assault world because a lot of victims do not even know
what they are or that they are available. I believe it is also
the key to getting victims to report.
Senator Klobuchar. Right. Very good. Thank you. The last
question I was going to ask was about recordkeeping, and I
think we have known that one of the key things as we talk about
what these States--to see what kits are sitting there untested
is maintaining accurate records.
Some States have new auditing programs. I know the number
of, as I mentioned untested kits in our State is really quite
low. We are also considering legislation at the State level to
do an audit.
How can we ensure that the audits are effective? How is the
backlog issue do you think going to be impacted by continuing
transitions to electronic and digital systems which would allow
us to check those audits? Do you have any examples of best
practices on that?
Mr. Hearn.
Mr. Hearn. I can touch on that from our experience as a
lesson learned in Texas. Our legislation provided 45 days for
the statewide audit, which was far too low. I am not aware of
any law enforcement agency in the Nation that has an electronic
tracking system that shows I have a kit, it was sent to the
lab, and it was tested. All three of those components are
necessary.
We are asking agencies to go flip through case files to see
is there a kit, did it go to the lab, did I get any results
back from the lab to know that it was tested, and that takes
time, especially for the larger agencies, and it takes
resources.
I think Mr. Berkowitz touched on the fact earlier that the
SAFER Act has funding available, but I do not believe any of
that has been provided at this point.
Senator Klobuchar. Right.
Mr. Hearn. I know that was a burden on our agencies trying
to provide the audit.
Senator Klobuchar. To have to do the audit.
Mr. Hearn. The deadline, they were diligent about trying to
meet the deadline, but the deadline was missed, and we are
still catching up to some of those agencies today.
Senator Klobuchar. In an ideal world, they would be
electronic, I suppose.
Mr. Hearn. Ideally.
Senator Klobuchar. To have the funding for that up front
and then it would be so simple to do an audit and so simple to
have accountability on what is happening with the test.
Mr. Hearn. Yes, ma'am.
Senator Klobuchar. Does anyone want to add anything to
that?
Ms. Byrd. Senator, there is a pilot project going on in
Detroit right now which is using--in partnership with UPS, is
developing a tracking system to do just what you are mentioning
right now.
Senator Klobuchar. Where is that again?
Ms. Byrd. That is in Detroit. What they are hoping is it
will allow them to monitor through the entire process where the
kit is and for them to keep better track and be able to do the
audits moving forward.
We are very early in that process, but the investment into
technology to track is critically important in order to ensure
that backlogs do not occur in the future.
Senator Klobuchar. Exactly. I just always believed that
when we started tracking cases, I mean, I remember when I came
into my job, there was one attorney that had a bunch of truancy
cases in a drawer, but I will just let that go for now. Maybe
like 100 of them.
The more we could do the tracking with computers on
everything and then you can start having timelines and you just
bring accountability into the whole system, and, to me, that is
going to make a big difference because people then can be
compared from jurisdiction to jurisdiction.
If they have an ultimate problem, which they may really
have, about funding, then that explains why they are behind
other jurisdictions. It will really help us make the case for
funding if we have all that data and that is why I kept asking
about these pilots and what is happening.
Thank you very much. Appreciate it.
Chairman Cornyn. Mr. Berkowitz, it seems like there has
been a lot of testimony about the role of audits raising the
visibility of this issue of the rape kit backlog and, if I am
not mistaken, you were one of the people who was championing
that idea 5 years or so ago, and we were able to implement that
requirement in the SAFER Act.
Would you comment about your views in terms of what
function the audit process plays in solving this problem?
Mr. Berkowitz. Yes, sir. Thank you for being the lead on
the SAFER Act and getting that passed and working with Senator
Bennet and with Congressmen Poe and Maloney.
I think audits are a crucial piece of this in two ways.
One, it gets law enforcement to go into their warehouses, look
through their storage rooms and figure out what cases are
there. Because of the lack of technology, that is often a
challenge for many departments. Giving that encouragement to go
through this process I think is really helpful.
Then the other thing that is really helpful is
transparency. I think that the audit numbers--the SAFER Act
provided that the Justice Department would post all these on
the web so media and the public can compare jurisdiction by
jurisdiction, and that is naturally going to create some
grassroots pressure on jurisdictions to address and test their
backlogs.
Chairman Cornyn. I could not agree more that as long as
this problem is sort of out of sight, out of mind, it is easy
to ignore, but you cannot ignore the numbers that we are seeing
from these audits, and I think part of the reason we are here
today is because the visibility of this issue has been raised
over time.
The person who I credit it with mostly is Debbie Smith for
being such a great example and a champion on this issue. I
would be remiss, Debbie, if I did not ask you if, based on what
you have heard today, based on your own experience and working
so hard in this area for so long for so many people, do you
have any advice and counsel about what else we need to be doing
that we are not doing or what we may have overlooked?
Ms. Smith. There has been a lot of talk about money today
and I know that is huge. I think, for me, and I guess--I have
said often that I guess this is why they do not name bills
after people who are still alive, because we come around and we
say what is going on. For me, I would just like to see the
money used more for what Congress meant it to be used for.
Everybody--there was such bipartisanship on this bill and
it is supposed to be a backlog bill, and backlog meaning
several different things; backlog meaning the rape kits which
need to be tested.
Without testing offender samples, testing those kits means
nothing. It is not just about testing. It is about matching and
matching those numbers and getting those rapists' names and
getting them off the street.
It is also about building capacity and making sure that the
labs can keep up with their workload once that backlog is done.
I believe the Debbie Smith Act has been sort of a victim of
its own success. We have done a great job and police officers
are beginning to see the value of what was once--when my case
went to trial, it was termed as the voodoo science and that was
just in 1995.
When we look back and see, we have come such a long way. We
still have a long way to go. We have to be able to get all
three of these components working together in order to get this
job done so we do not have to keep reauthorizing the Debbie
Smith bill and Debbie Smith can go back to Williamsburg and she
does not have to come to Washington anymore.
I just would like to see that money used efficiently for
what Congress and for what everybody fought for it and used for
that purpose, and, to me, that is the best way that we can
serve victims is to do what we set out to do.
Chairman Cornyn. Mr. Berkowitz, I think you were the one
who talked about if the 75 percent of the funds had been used
actually to test rape kits, what a dramatic impact that would
have on this--who knows what it is--400,000 rape kit backlog
without anymore taxpayer money being appropriated.
Thank you for that observation. I think that makes Ms.
Smith's point very well.
We talked a lot about transparency and accountability and I
agree that that has really been an important part of the
reforming of this whole problem that we have seen.
I would just note, Mr. Hearn, Texas actually posts on a
website all of the rape kit audit information, does it not?
Mr. Hearn. Yes, sir. We post the reported cases from the
audit and their current outsourcing status.
Chairman Cornyn. Someone asked about carrots and sticks. We
need to be careful on how we approach that and what we tie
grant money to, but it strikes me as a pretty commonsense
approach to creating the kind of transparency and
accountability that I think will continue to cause people to
come to Congress and to their local--their State legislature
and their local county government and say what are you doing to
help address this problem and to make the situation better.
I think that sort of transparency and accountability is
really important.
Senator Durbin, I have taken another partial round, any
other questions you have?
Senator Durbin. No.
Chairman Cornyn. Let me just say, to all of you, thank you
very much for being here today. Thanks to each of you in your
own way for being leaders in this important effort. We are all
committed to working together to eliminate this backlog, if
that is humanly possible, recognizing that this is a big
country and a lot of different layers of law enforcement and a
lot of different challenges, rural and urban and the like.
I am convinced that working together we can definitely make
this situation much better than it is now for people like
Debbie Smith and the people she represents.
Thank you very much. The hearing is adjourned.
[Whereupon, at 4:16 p.m., the hearing was adjourned.]
[Additional material submitted for the record follows.]
A P P E N D I X
Submitted by Senator Cornyn:
Nance, Penny, editorial from The Christian Post.................. 75
O'Malley, Nancy, E., statement................................... 78
Submitted by Senator Durbin:
Dart, Thomas J., statement....................................... 90
Innocence and Forensic Science Group Letter...................... 84
Spahos, Charles A., statement.................................... 92
Thompson, Jennifer, statement.................................... 94
Zambuto, Maile M., statement..................................... 96
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