Bob CollinsThousands of rape kits that could yield clues to the identity of the rapist are sitting in storage and have never been examined, according to CBS News. In some cases, the report says, officials don’t want to spend the money to solve the rape.
Sixteen states were investigated; Minnesota was one of them:
In Minneapolis, with the help of a new federal grant, the department and the Hennepin County Attorney’s office recently started looking through untested kits in storage and found there were kits from stranger rapes where the victim did not cooperate that were never tested. At the urging of Steve Redding, Hennepin County Attorney, and Lt. Nancy Dunlap, the head of the Sex Crimes Unit at the Minneapolis Police Department, the kits were put in for testing. Almost immediately it yielded results and Minneapolis law enforcement was able to put eight men behind bars. In an effort to find more cases of this kind, the prosecutor and the sex crimes unit are combing through 8,500 rape cases reported since 1991 looking for stranger rapes where the evidence was never tested.
Last week, Sen. Al Franken filed legislation to encourage states to examine the rape kits.
