Senate Bill Speeds Up Rape Evidence Testing
AUSTIN (AP) - The Texas Senate has voted to push quicker testing of biological evidence collected in sexual assault cases.
Studies have found thousands of untested rape kits in Dallas and Houston and other cities. In 2003, Fort Worth got a grant to test a backlog of decade-old evidence and was able to find more than 200 hits to a federal database of criminal suspects.
The bill by Sen. Wendy Davis, a Fort Worth Democrat, requires police to give the evidence to a crime lab within 30 days after it is collected. That evidence would have to be tested within 90 days.
Davis says the bill is important to both catch rapists and help avoid wrongful convictions.
The bill now goes to the House for consideration.
(© Copyright 2011 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.)
