GIST: "Federal officials who pledged millions of dollars to test backlogged rape kits promised that sexual predators would be brought to justice – and wrongfully convicted prisoners would be exonerated.
Nine years later, after the National Sexual Assault Kit Initiative awarded nearly $350 million in grants to 90 state and local agencies, USA Today has been able to confirm just one exoneration as a result of the grant program.
Thousands of kits that could free more innocent people have been left untested – again., USA Today reports.
The National Institute of Justice recommends testing backlogged kits from all reported sexual assaults, including in closed cases.
Entering DNA profiles from those kits into a national database could help clear wrongfully convicted people and identify rapists who have evaded justice.
Following those standards is not required to get a grant, and recipients in at least 10 states didn’t do it.
The agencies didn’t test backlogged kits in cases with a previous confession, guilty plea or conviction, or if the suspect’s DNA already was in the national database.
As a result, prisoners with cases tied to untested kits must overcome legal hurdles before the evidence can be analyzed for DNA.
The process typically takes years – if it happens at all.
In the meantime, the true perpetrators may be left free to commit more crimes.
Officials at the U.S. Department of Justice, which oversees the Sexual Assault Kit Initiative, did not respond when asked for a list of exonerations attributed to the program.
Federal data provided via a public records request was riddled with errors.
The city of Cleveland reported 23 exonerations to the government, and Connecticut’s Department of Emergency Services and Public Protection reported two.
Officials in both places said those numbers were mistakes and should have been zero.
No other grantees reported exonerations.
The newspaper found details about two overturned convictions in Wayne County, Mich., by searching media archives and websites, including the National Registry of Exonerations, a project of universities in Michigan and California.
Michigan prosecutor Kym Worthy has been at the forefront of bringing attention to the rape kit backlog.
Only one of those exonerations was directly attributed to the federal grant program.
The other, of Anthony Dyer, occurred as a result of Worthy's previous efforts to ensure untested kits were analyzed.""
The entire post can be read at:
PUBLISHER'S NOTE: I am monitoring this case/issue/resource. Keep your eye on the Charles Smith Blog for reports on developments. The Toronto Star, my previous employer for more than twenty incredible years, has put considerable effort into exposing the harm caused by Dr. Charles Smith and his protectors - and into pushing for reform of Ontario's forensic pediatric pathology system. The Star has a "topic" section which focuses on recent stories related to Dr. Charles Smith. It can be found at: http://www.thestar.com/topic/charlessmith. Information on "The Charles Smith Blog Award"- and its nomination process - can be found at: http://smithforensic.blogspot.com/2011/05/charles-smith-blog-award-nominations.html Please send any comments or information on other cases and issues of interest to the readers of this blog to: hlevy15@gmail.com. Harold Levy: Publisher: The Charles Smith Blog.
- SEE BREAKDOWN OF SOME OF THE ON-GOING INTERNATIONAL CASES (OUTSIDE OF THE CONTINENTAL USA) THAT I AM FOLLOWING ON THIS BLOG, AT THE LINK BELOW: HL:
https://www.blogger.com/blog/post/edit/120008354894645705/4704913685758792985
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FINAL WORD: (Applicable to all of our wrongful conviction cases): "Whenever there is a wrongful conviction, it exposes errors in our criminal legal system, and we hope that this case — and lessons from it — can prevent future injustices."
Lawyer Radha Natarajan:
Executive Director: New England Innocence Project;
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FINAL, FINAL WORD: "Since its inception, the Innocence Project has pushed the criminal legal system to confront and correct the laws and policies that cause and contribute to wrongful convictions. They never shied away from the hard cases — the ones involving eyewitness identifications, confessions, and bite marks. Instead, in the course of presenting scientific evidence of innocence, they've exposed the unreliability of evidence that was, for centuries, deemed untouchable." So true!
Christina Swarns: Executive Director: The Innocence Project;
