On the Job 

Ohio Attorney General Mike DeWine has been encouraging local law enforcement in the state to send in Sexual Assault Kits for DNA testing by the Bureau of Criminal Investigation (BCI). The response to the Sexual Assault Kit Testing Initiative has been strong.

As of mid-March, 153 law enforcement agencies in Ohio have submitted 9,279 kits for testing; 6,689 kits have been tested. DNA results of the testing have led to 2,519 hits in the Combined DNA Index System, commonly known as CODIS.

In Cuyahoga County alone, these efforts resulted in more than 250 defendants being indicted.

To handle the influx of the thousands of kits, Attorney General DeWine hired 10 additional 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 more than 6,790 rape kits tested by BCI since 2011 that are associated with recent crimes.

Now, the state legislature has added to the call for submitting these kits, some of which have been found to be decades old, through Senate Bill 316, which took effect March 23.

“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.

Law enforcement agencies are required to review their records relevant to the law’s specified of­fenses -- aggravated murder, murder, voluntary manslaughter, first or second degree felony involuntary manslaughter, first or second degree felony aggravated vehicular homicide, rape, sexual battery, gross sexual imposition committed in the circumstances specified in R.C. 2907.05(A) (4) or (B), and attempted rape – as soon as pos­sible after the act’s effective date.

Older sexual assault kits associated with such offenses -- any collected before the bill’s effective date -- must be submitted to a crime lab for testing within one year. When organizing submissions, those cases being investigated that are closest to any applicable statute of limitations related to the DNA specimens collected are to be submitted first.

Cases after March 23, 2015, are to be submitted to a crime lab within 30 days. Kits should be submitted even if there is no active suspect in the case. With this new legislation and subsequent submissions, the SAK Testing Initiative will essentially be entering Phase 2 of the effort, Phase 1 having begun in 2011 and running up to the date of the new legislation.

While BCI is ready for the additional cases to be submitted on and after March 23, the bill does not require that test kits be submitted to BCI. However, as before when Attorney General DeWine began the Sexual Assault Kit Testing Initiative, there is no charge to local law enforcement to test the kits they submit to BCI.

Law enforcement agencies are required to retrieve and submit kits currently in pos­session of a clinic, hospital, or other entity.

The progress made in submitting and testing Sexual Assault Kits and the ac­curacy of DNA testing have spurred a look at other approaches that could also help bring justice to victims and prosecute criminals.

For example, the Ohio legislature is dis­cussing additional legislation that would modify the statute of limitations regarding the prosecution of rape and sexual battery crimes, a move supported by Attorney General DeWine.