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Pastimes : THE SLIGHTLY MODERATED BOXING RING -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Tom Clarke who wrote (8979)	4/15/2002 8:47:02 AM
From: Poet	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 21057

I'll go take a look at it. Thanks. Interesting editorial in today's NYTimes: April 15, 2002 Take the DNA Kits Off the Shelves By BOB HERBERT Debbie Smith felt perfectly safe that Friday afternoon in March 1989. She was in her own home on a quiet street in Williamsburg, Va. Her husband, a police officer, was asleep upstairs. Her two school-aged children were expected home shortly. She was entirely focused on her housework, when suddenly a man grabbed her from behind and told her he would kill her if she screamed. The man was wearing a ski mask and holding a baseball bat. And he said he had a gun. He grabbed her purse, which was hanging on a microwave stand. And then he forced her outside and into the woods behind her house, where he raped her. In an interview last week, Ms. Smith said that when the man finally let her go, she rushed back to her house, woke her husband and told him what had happened. She said she was so frightened she didn't even want him to call the Police Department. "I begged him not to," she said. "All I wanted to do was go straight to the bathroom and take a shower. He held me, and with tears in his eyes, he said, `I can't let you do that.' " The police were called. Ms. Smith was examined. And DNA samples were taken. The DNA, part of a package of evidence known as a rape examination kit, eventually led to the conviction of the man who attacked Ms. Smith. But more than a year passed before the DNA sample was analyzed, and six and a half years went by before the sample was connected to the rapist. Similar delays continue to this day, and thousands of rapists escape prosecution entirely, because of a lack of systematic procedures for the collection and processing of DNA evidence. The most immediate problem is the extraordinary backlog of cases in which DNA samples have been taken but have not yet been analyzed. There are tens of thousands of rape kits sitting uselessly on shelves across the nation, waiting for someone to analyze them. In many instances they sit for years and years, until the statute of limitations has run out. Compounding the problem is the fact that many of the kits were sloppily or otherwise improperly handled and prove useless even after they are analyzed. Most rape victims never see a professionally trained examiner. And in a large percentage of cases where DNA evidence is collected by untrained examiners, it ends up being declared inadmissible in court. All of these problems leave rapists at an advantage, making it more difficult to catch them, and to convict them even if they are caught. Recidivism is notoriously high among sex offenders. Rapists left on the loose are, in effect, given a license to rape again and again. There is now an effort in Congress to bring a greater degree of professionalism, order and efficiency to the collection and processing of DNA evidence in rape cases. The "Debbie Smith Act" would standardize the evidence collection kits for sexual assaults, making it easier to enter the information into state and national databases; would provide funds to help forensic laboratories attack the staggering backlog of DNA cases waiting to be analyzed; and would provide funds to train personnel throughout the U.S. in the proper collection and handling of DNA evidence. The legislation is being pushed in the House by the bipartisan team of Carolyn Maloney, a New York Democrat, and Mark Green, a Republican from Wisconsin. A companion bill has been introduced in the Senate by Maria Cantwell, a Democrat from the state of Washington. The legislation is also being heavily promoted by the Lifetime television network, which is gathering signatures for an online petition as part of its overall campaign to stop violence against women. "It is a criminal outrage," said Ms. Maloney, "that DNA evidence is sitting on shelves across this country, not being processed and not being used to convict rapists." In Debbie Smith's case, it turned out that the man who attacked her was imprisoned on other felony charges just six months later. In a more efficient system, a DNA match connecting him to her case would have been made then. Instead it wasn't made for another six years, and Ms. Smith feared her attacker was on the loose that entire time. After being convicted of raping Ms. Smith, he was sentenced as a multiple offender to two consecutive life terms plus 25 years. What that means is that parole is not possible.