For Immediate Release: August 11, 2020
Contact: Melissa Schwartz, media@endthebacklog.org
NEW YORK – The Joyful Heart Foundation (Joyful Heart), a national leader in the effort to reform rape kit policies across the country, today applauded the Nebraska state legislature’s passage of new rape kit reforms, including a sweeping survivor’s rights bill that grants survivors of sexual assault the right to know about the status of their rape kit. Legislative Bills 43 and 881 have now been signed into law by Governor Pete Ricketts.
Through its End the Backlog initiative, Joyful Heart is implementing a national campaign to pass comprehensive rape kit reform legislation in all 50 states framed around six pillars for reform. These new laws represent important first steps in rape kit reform in Nebraska. Learn more about activity in Nebraska at: http://www.endthebacklog.org/nebraska.
“Behind every kit is a person—a sexual assault survivor—waiting for justice,” said Ilse Knecht, Director of Policy & Advocacy for Joyful Heart. “Our victim notification research found that access to information about their case is central to survivors’ healing. Giving survivors access to information about their kits can help counter the loss of self-determination and control at the core of a sexual assault experience.”
Among its provisions, L.B. 43 provides survivors with the right to prompt analysis of sexual assault evidence; to know the status and analysis of their kit, and to have the DNA profile uploaded to state and local databases. In addition, the bill requires that medical providers notify law enforcement of the existence of a completed rape kit and law enforcement must collect the kit, and store the evidence for either the statute of limitations applicable to the sexual assault or 20 years, whichever is longer.
Every 73 seconds someone is sexually assaulted in America. In the immediate aftermath of a sexual assault, a victim may choose to undergo a 4-6 hour invasive medical forensic examination to collect evidence left behind during the assault. Survivors who take this step expect that their rape kits will be tested. The public expects the same. Yet too often, rape kits are left untested on evidence room shelves.
In 2018, more than 1,200 survivors reported a sexual assault to law enforcement in Nebraska. Because the state has never performed a statewide inventory, we do not know how many of those survivors, or the thousands of survivors from past years, had their rape kit tested. L.B. 881 will require cities with populations of 100,000 or more (currently, Lincoln and Omaha) to report each year on their inventory of untested sexual assault kits.
“When law enforcement agencies inventory the untested kits in their custody, communities can take steps to test those kits, hold offenders accountable and bring justice to sexual assault survivors whose cases have languished, often for years—or even decades,” added Knecht.
“Joyful Heart and national best practices strongly encourage the auditing of untested rape kits annually across the state to ensure uniform procedures. We look forward to working with legislators to continue this momentum and pass reform so that every survivor has a pathway to justice, regardless of their zip code.”
Joyful Heart has created the premier national resource about the rape kit backlog, which includes an interactive map and resources for survivors, legislators, and the media. Learn more at: ENDTHEBACKLOG.org.