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Attorney General Mike DeWine
DeWine
Announces 10,000 Rape Kits Tested
(COLUMBUS, Ohio)— Ohio Attorney General Mike DeWine announced today
that forensic scientists with the Ohio Bureau of Criminal Investigation
(BCI) have now tested 10,000 rape kits for DNA as part of a special
initiative to secure justice for victims of sexual assault in Ohio.
"This is a tremendous milestone," said Attorney General DeWine.
"The testing of these 10,000 kits has helped identify hundreds of
alleged assailants, many of whom repeatedly committed violent attacks.
"Not only is Ohio now a leader in the nation when it comes to testing
rape kits, but this effort has also helped spur a culture change in
Ohio regarding the investigation of sexual assaults. The initiative
demonstrates how critical DNA can be to helping solve crimes and why
the timely submission of evidence for testing is so important."
The 10,000 kits were tested as part of Attorney General DeWine's Sexual
Assault Kit (SAK) Testing Initiative. Attorney General DeWine launched
the initiative in 2011 after learning that many law enforcement
agencies across the state were in possession of rape kits that had
never been sent to a DNA lab for testing. He then asked law
enforcement officials to voluntarily send their kits to BCI for DNA
testing at no cost to them.
To date, authorities from 252 law enforcement agencies have sent 12,206
rape kits to BCI for testing as part of the special initiative,
including many kits that were decades old. The testing has led to
3,629 hits in the Combined DNA Index System (CODIS), linking crimes to
offenders, identifying serial rapists, and giving law enforcement
agencies critical evidence to help solve brutal attacks.
In Cuyahoga County, where the majority of the submitted sexual assault
kits are from, 445 defendants have been indicted so far, with 162 of
those offenders identified as serial offenders, according to the
Cuyahoga County Prosecutor's Office. Among those convicted
include a man sentenced to life in prison for a string of sexual
assaults that took place between 1994 and 1997; a man sentenced to 41
years in prison for forcing or luring four women into his vehicle
before raping them between November 1993 and November 1995; and a man
sentenced to more than two decades in prison for attacks on two
teenagers in 1994.
Attorney General DeWine today also reminded law enforcement that the
deadline to submit any remaining untested sexual assault kits
associated with a past crime is quickly approaching. Senate Bill 316,
which went into effect on March 23, 2015, requires law enforcement to
submit any remaining older kits to a crime laboratory within one
year. Of the more than 12,000 kits submitted to BCI as part of
the SAK Testing Initiative, 2,875 were submitted since the law went
into effect.
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