AG Josh Stein announces NC's decades-long backlog of 16,000 untested rape kits has been cleared

[littlemissmartypants]

AG Josh Stein announces NC’s decades-long backlog of 16,000 untested rape kits has been cleared

Attorney General Josh Stein announced earlier this month that North Carolina's backlog of untested sexual assault kits - once the largest in the country - had been cleared.

Stein had prioritized clearing the backlog since he took office in 2017. In conjunction with local law enforcement and the legislature, the North Carolina Department of Justice undertook a statewide inventory of untested kits and found more than 16,000 of them sitting on the shelves of law enforcement agencies across the state in 2019, Stein's office said in a release. Under the process set out by the Survivor's Act, it was determined that 11,858 of those kits needed to be tested.

As of April, 11,841 kits have been tested or are in the process of being tested. Of those, 5,078 samples have been entered into the CODIS DNA database, and CODIS has matched the samples to 2,723 hits, according to the state’s live-tracking database. More than 2,000 of those samples had hits to offenders whose DNA is already in the database due to previous arrests or convictions. So far, 114 arrests have been made based on these hits. The remaining several kits are currently being processed for testing.

"[This] excellent news is the result of an impressive team effort, but our work doesn’t end now," Stein said in a statement. "We’ve put in place measures to ensure that we never get into this situation again in North Carolina, and I intend to continue to do everything in my power to help law enforcement solve cold cases and get rapists off the streets and behind bars.”
Snip...more...
https://progressncaction.org/2024/04/ag-josh-stein-announces-ncs-decades-long-backlog-of-16000-untested-rape-kits-has-been-cleared/

❤️pants
GOTV!

[niyad]

1. This is very good news indeed. But, without reading the entire

lengthy bill, do we know why 4,000 of those kits, 25%, were not tested?

This part pisses me off: more than 2, 000 were linked to DNA already in the system from previous offenders. MAYBE if the F'n authorities had done their damned jobs in the first place, instead of ignoring the victims and the evidence, some of those rapists would have been off the streets.

[littlemissmartypants]

2. Apologies for the formatting. I copied it from the PDF link.

Ending North Carolina’s Sexual Assault Kit Backlog:
A Closer Look at the Numbers
The 2019 inventory of sexual assault kits determined that there were 16,221 older, untested sexual assault kits in
local law enforcement custody.
Also in 2019, Attorney General Josh Stein worked with legislators of both parties to enact the Survivor Act, which
required law enforcement agencies to create review teams to determine which of their untested kits needed to be
tested. These reviews resulted in the following kit breakdowns:
16,221 kits in inventory:
 11,858 kits required testing under the requirements of the Survivor Act.
 2,958 kits do not require testing under the Survivor Act because:
o The kit was linked to a case that law enforcement and prosecutors had already won a conviction in,
and the defendant’s sample was added to the CODIS DNA database.
o The kit was determined to be unfounded after a comprehensive review by the law enforcement
agency and another review by the multi-disciplinary review team, including victim advocates. An
“unfounded” determination means that there is clear and convincing evidence that the crime did not
occur.
 1,405 kits have not been tested, because they are unreported or anonymous. In these instances, the
survivor agreed to have a sexual assault evidence kit collected, but they chose not to report the crime to
law enforcement and did not consent to participating in the criminal justice process. In accordance with
their wishes, their kit was not tested. The Department of Public Safety’s Law Enforcement Support Services
stores these kits. If a survivor later changes their mind and wants their kit processed, the Crime Lab will test
the kit on behalf of law enforcement.
11,841 kits have been tested or are in the process of finishing being tested.
 5,075 kits contained samples that could then be submitted to the CODIS DNA database.
 2,702 of those samples had hits in the CODIS DNA database.
o 2,024 samples had hits to offenders whose DNA is in the database because of previous
convictions/arrests.
o 291 samples had hits to other unsolved cases or other solved cases in which DNA samples were
collected and submitted as part of the investigation.
o 387 samples were submitted from cases that law enforcement had solved and had hits to other
solved cases.
o As a result of those hits, law enforcement has made at least 114 arrests related to kits from the
inventory.
o The remaining 17 kits are in process for testing.

PDF Link
https://ncdoj.gov/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/SAKI-Numbers_onepager.pdf

❤️

[niyad]

3. Thank you for that answer to my question. I had looked for, but did

not find the guidelines. But, I am wondering how many of that nearly 3,000 were deemed "unfounded", given the actual low percentage of false rape accusations (regardless of the whining we hear!)

[littlemissmartypants]

4. I'm not following you. Please elaborate. ❤️

[niyad]

5. Sorry. I was just wondering exactly how many of those nearly 3,000

kits were dismissed as "unfounded", as no numbers were given for each of the specified reasons for dismissal (unless I missed it, which is entirely possible). Since the percentage of false rape accusations is actually very small, I would be very much interested to know what the "unfounded" figures are in that particular group, and if they correspond to the general numbers guven for false accusations.

[littlemissmartypants]

6. Two contingencies are mentioned.

2,958 kits do not require testing under the Survivor Act because:

1. The kit was linked to a case that law enforcement and prosecutors had already won a conviction in, and the defendant’s sample was added to the CODIS DNA database.

2. The kit was determined to be unfounded after a comprehensive review by the law enforcement
agency and another review by the multi-disciplinary review team, including victim advocates. An “unfounded” determination means that there is clear and convincing evidence that the crime did not occur.

So, law enforcement did a review and the multi-disciplinary review team, including victim advocates did another review of the same cases behind LE review.

I can do more research on the makeup of the second group but I'll have to do it later. I haven't looked at any other statistics for comparison. For example, false rape accusations as a data set.

It appears that the qualification is proof of a crime generally. If a crime is identified in relation to the kit then it qualified for testing.

False accusations appear not to have been considered as a data point. Knowing the kid of guy Josh is that makes sense. He wouldn't be accusatory toward a reporting victim whether there's a crime identified or not. It appears to be a diligent by the book definition of "crime committed" that he followed in the process.

I hope that helps. ❤️

[niyad]

7. I appreciate all the time and effort you have already taken to answer my no-doubt

annoying questions. I do not wish to be a bother.

[littlemissmartypants]

8. Not annoying at all! I love you, niyad. ❤️

[niyad]

9. Love you, too. I hope your evening is going well.