Backlogged rape kits in Detroit head for further investigation
Source: Yahoo! News / Reuters
DETROIT (Reuters) - Most of the 11,000 rape-evidence kits left languishing in a Detroit warehouse have been analyzed since they turned up several years ago, with DNA matches leading to further investigation in 35 states, Michigan's governor said on Wednesday.
The rape kits, which were found abandoned on a storage shelf in 2009, contain DNA samples from hair and swabs of bodily fluids recovered from victims. Since their discovery, Wayne County Prosecutor Kym Worthy has lobbied to get the stockpiled kits processed.
Governor Rick Snyder secured supplemental funding in 2013 to pay for laboratory analysis of the evidence from 8,000 kits, after the first 2,000 were initially processed by state police.
The state legislature has approved an additional $7 million to assist the state Attorney General's Office in prosecuting accused offenders identified by the testing.
Read more: http://news.yahoo.com/backlogged-rape-kits-detroit-head-further-investigation-205540354.html
Demeter
(85,373 posts)The only decent thing he's done in 7 years...doesn't make up for the right-to-work-for-less middle of the night bill, though.
eggplant
(3,893 posts)Demeter
(85,373 posts)a bitter, choked kind of laugh.
Political hacks do it all the time. You would think I was used to it by now...but it never was this bad in Michigan until Engler.
eggplant
(3,893 posts)I grew up in Muskegon and then spent my late teens to early 20s in Grand Rapids. I hear West Michigan is much more liberal now, but back then it was scary how repressive it was. De Vos and VanAndel controlled pretty much everything.
We left just as Engler was coming in, and got to watch what he did from a safe distance. Granholm seemed pretty good, but Snyder seems to really want to screw over everyone in the state.
I do really miss the lake, though.
Demeter
(85,373 posts)Single mother, disabled child...no time, no money. Still, Ann Arbor isn't a bad place to be stuck. Lots to do locally, and services for the Kid. And there's a good pool in the summer.
I got back in 1996; my family left in 1969 when I was in high school. But there's no place like home...and I am glad to be here. I didn't fit on any other coast. Or country.
eggplant
(3,893 posts)My dad and one brother did undergrad there, another brother did his masters and med school there. Plus, one of my dad's law partners was a regent at UM, so we regularly got tickets to home games. Good times.
My wife and I met in school in the Berkshires (Mass). No other place has really felt like home as much as here, even when we were just visiting. (Well, technically, we're in the Taconics now, but it's close enough.)
sybylla
(8,464 posts)they've only managed 23 convictions and have another 106 cases being actively investigated.
Processing the kits is a start. It's not the end. Clearly this is a priority for the state. /sarcasm