For Immediate Release: May 19, 2020
Contact: Melissa Schwartz, media@endthebacklog.org
NEW YORK — In testimony before the California State Assembly’s Public Safety Committee today, the Joyful Heart Foundation (Joyful Heart) strongly urged passage of Assembly Bill 2481, which would require all sexual assault kits received by law enforcement before January 2016 be submitted to the appropriate crime lab for testing by January 20, 2021. The lab will be required to test these pre-2016 kits by January 31, 2022.
Read the written testimony here.
Ilse Knecht, Joyful Heart’s Director of Policy & Advocacy, testified: “DNA evidence is a powerful law enforcement tool. When tested, rape kit evidence can identify unknown assailants, link crime scenes together, reveal serial offenders, and exonerate the wrongfully convicted. When those kits are left untested, survivors are deprived of a vital path to healing and justice, communities are left vulnerable, and violent perpetrators are allowed to roam the streets.”
In 2016, Joyful Heart launched a national campaign to enact comprehensive rape kit reform laws in all 50 states based on six pillars of reform. In California, work with the legislature included passage of a number of these pillars: requiring an inventory of untested rape kits across the state, mandating the testing of all newly submitted rape kits, and allocating state funding to complement federal grant programs (currently available).
A statewide inventory mandated by A.B. 3118 was released in April 2020 and found more than 13,000 untested rape kits across the state. Unfortunately, every jurisdiction did not respond as required by the law and the inventory did not include a count of untested kits sitting at medical facilities. Ultimately, this means that we still do not have a thorough count of the untested kit backlog across California. While California law now mandates the testing of all rape kits moving forward, there is no mandate to test kits that are backlogged within law enforcement custody, medical facilities, or crime labs. That is why passage of A.B. 2481 is so important, because it bridges the gap that exists for backlogged kits from before January 2016.
“I implore this Committee to pass AB 2481,” testified Knecht. “With it, you will send a clear message to survivors that what happened to them matters, and to offenders that this government will do everything possible to hold them accountable. The stakes are simply too high to strive for anything less.”
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.
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The mission of the Joyful Heart Foundation is to transform society’s response to sexual assault, domestic violence, and child abuse, support survivors’ healing, and end this violence forever. www.joyfulheartfoundation.org