(COLUMBUS, Ohio) -- Ohio Attorney General Mike DeWine today announced that forensic scientists with the Ohio Bureau of Criminal Investigation (BCI) have tested nearly 6,000 sexual assault kits as part of a special initiative to test rape kits that had not before been tested for DNA.
As of January 1, 2015, BCI forensic scientists have tested 5,928 rape kits as part of Attorney General DeWine's Sexual Assault Kit (SAK) Testing Initiative. The DNA testing has resulted in 2,244 hits to DNA already in the Combined DNA Index System (CODIS).
"This initiative has been incredibly successful, and I'm pleased that this effort is helping to bring justice to victims in Ohio," said Attorney General DeWine.
Last month, Governor John Kasich signed Senate Bill 316, which will require Ohio law enforcement agencies to submit any remaining previously untested sexual assault kits associated with a crime to a crime laboratory within one year after the law takes effect. The law will also require that all newly collected rape kits be submitted to a crime lab within 30 days after law enforcement determines a crime has been committed.
The law will take effect on March 23, 2015.
"It is extremely important that each and every one of these kits be tested, and I applaud the legislature for ensuring that it is no longer an option to submit these kits for testing, but a requirement of law," said Attorney General DeWine.
In all, 149 law enforcement agencies from across Ohio have submitted a total of 9,056 kits for testing. In Cuyahoga County alone, more than 240 defendants have been indicted following testing conducted as part of the effort.
Attorney General DeWine launched the initiative after learning that dozens of law enforcement agencies across the state were in possession of rape kits, some of which were decades old, that had never been sent to a DNA lab for testing. Attorney General DeWine then made an open call to law enforcement to send their kits to BCI for DNA testing free of charge.
To handle the influx of the thousands of kits, Attorney General DeWine hired ten additional BCI forensic scientists to ensure the timely analysis of kits submitted as part of the SAK Testing Initiative. By hiring this additional staff, the older kits are tested as quickly as possible, without slowing down the testing of the nearly 6,400 rape kits associated with recent crimes tested by BCI since 2011.
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Media Contacts:
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Jill Del Greco: 614-466-3840