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Speed Testing Of Evidence

Justice was long in coming for some women raped in West Virginia decades ago. For many, it may never happen.

In 2015, Mountain State residents were upset to learn of a terrible backlog in testing of rape kits, which include physical evidence collected in sexual assault cases. As many as 2,400 of the kits had sat on police storage shelves and, sometimes at the State Police Forensic Lab, for many years. Some dated back to the 1980s.

A crash program to get the kits tested was launched. Now, the state Department of Military Affairs and Public Safety reports the backlog will be cleared by the end of this year.

Old rape kits already tested have yielded some results. Officials say testing has added nearly 300 DNA profiles to a database. Of that number, 106 profiles have been matched to offenders or evidence collected from other crimes.

So a few rapists who assaulted women years, even decades, ago may yet pay for their crimes.

In addition, the forensic lab is clearing up evidence testing on other type of crimes. It had a backlog of nearly 5,000 cases at the end of 2016. That has been reduced to 2,300 cases.

Pleas for more forensic lab personnel and equipment have been received favorably by legislators during the past few years. But how was the situation allowed to get so bad in the first place?

Whatever the answer to that, steps need to be taken to ensure the unacceptable testing backlogs never occur again.

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