This is one of the more perplexing and disturbing things of our times.
Paul Egan and Gina Damron of the Detroit Free Press report that nearly five years after the discovery of 11,000 abandoned rape evidence kits in a Detroit police warehouse, only about 2,000 -- or less than 20 percent -- have undergone DNA testing.
The end result is pretty obvious: It has allowed some serial rapists to remain free.
Things are going to change, the Freep reports.
All the kits are finally expected to get tested this year because the state Legislature appropriated $4 million to send them to private labs.
Still, after five years, you have to ask yourself: Why did it take so long to get dollars to address such a critical matter as rape?
The Freep goes on to write:
As important as the DNA is, testing alone is only a part of the equation in getting justice for the hundreds of people who have been victimized and getting dangerous sexual predators off the streets. Testing on the kits has already produced more than 500 hits with named suspects on a national DNA database, but police and prosecutors haven’t even begun to follow up on more than 150 of those leads.
The reasons for the delays are varied. Only on TV crime shows can investigators get a DNA hit and rush out and charge a suspect, officials say. In real life, and particularly in cases dating back a decade or more — as many of the thousands of discovered rape kits are — once evidence is tested, victims must be found, witnesses must be interviewed or re-interviewed, and old police files must be located or reconstructed. -- A.L.
