$335 Million to Test Rape DNA OKd in Senate Bill
The Senate has approved a bill that would provide $335 million to state and local laboratories to analyze DNA evidence in unsolved rape cases, potentially identifying or clearing suspects in hundreds of thousands of sexual assault cases.
The bill is aimed at reducing a backlog of as many as 500,000 untested rape kits, where DNA and evidence from a victim or crime scene is collected and labeled.
The bill would spend as much as $275 million over five years to allow laboratories to analyze DNA evidence. An additional $50 million would be authorized to improve training for collection and handling of such evidence; $10 million would be used to build a databank of samples collected from felons.
A 1999 government report found at least 180,000 untested rape kits around the nation. That total has since grown to an estimated 500,000, lawmakers say.
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