Illinois law enforcement would begin a sweeping overhaul of the way it handles sex-crime DNA evidence under legislation approved by the General Assembly, but questions remain about the funding and time frame for analyzing the evidence.
Lawmakers said the measure is in response to a Tribune review that found police departments have not sent many rape kits to the state crime lab for testing and the lab has refused to test many kits, robbing the state of opportunities to solve crimes and exonerate the wrongfully convicted.
Under the legislation, which passed the House on Thursday and now awaits Gov. Pat Quinn’s signature:
— Starting Oct. 1, police departments would be required to submit all DNA evidence from sex crimes to the state crime lab within 10 days of collecting it. The lab would analyze the evidence within six months, but only “if sufficient staffing and resources are available.”
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— By Oct. 15, law enforcement agencies would be required to provide the crime lab with an inventory of all untested rape kits in their storage facilities. Within four months, the Illinois State Police would submit to the Illinois attorney general and General Assembly a timeline and budget for analyzing the untested kits — a number estimated at more than 4,000.
— State police would craft guidelines for expunging from the DNA database samples from people who are innocent of a crime.
Officials from the attorney general’s office and Illinois State Police, who helped craft the legislation, said that almost every single new and old rape kit is guaranteed to be tested. The only exception, they said, would be in cases in which the victim recanted or the police determine the case was unfounded.
Cara Smith, deputy chief of staff to Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan, said it is necessary to stagger the time frame for testing the kits in police storage. They want to see how many kits surface and how many additional resources are needed before determining deadlines for analyzing them. The crime lab already suffers from a backlog in DNA evidence.