Group urges Utah lawmakers to fund DNA analysis of all rape kits

DNA Were going to identify serial rapists, says panelist.

All of Utahs backlogged DNA evidence from sex-assault cases should be analyzed, and all such rape kits from present and future cases should be processed as well.

Thats what Ned Seale, a spokesman for a special work group, told the Law Enforcement and Criminal Justice Legislative Interim Committee on Wednesday.

The ad hoc work group has defined a priority system for analyzing about 2,700 backlogged rape kits statewide that contain DNA and other forensic evidence, said Jeff Carr, deputy commissioner for the Utah Department of Public Safety.

Earlier this year, the Utah Legislature allocated $750,000 for the analysis of backlogged forensic kits. Some federal funding also may be available for processing them, Carr said.

The state crime lab is establishing the "Utah Quick Analysis Program," Carr told the committee, to analyze DNA but not necessarily all the evidence in the kit. The protocol would be faster and less expensive than the present system. Rather than months, DNA could be analyzed in 60 to 90 days.

Law enforcement agencies in other states that have begun testing backlogged rape kits are discovering that one in three find matches in CODIS, the national criminal DNA database, Donna Kelly, Utah Prosecution Council, said in an interview

"Were going to identify serial rapists," Kelly explained.

Rep. Jennifer Selig, D-Salt Lake City, who has spearheaded the movement in Utah to get backlogged rape kits processed, said she is "cautiously optimistic" that law enforcement agencies will begin to process all such evidence to help give victims some satisfaction while seeking out offenders.

Whether legislation to fund the analysis of sexual-assault evidence will come out of the 2015 legislative session remains unclear. Also uncertain is whether the Legislature will require agencies to test all rape kits.

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Group urges Utah lawmakers to fund DNA analysis of all rape kits