North Carolina has ended its backlog of thousands of untested rape kits, AG Josh Stein says

By Sharryse Piggott

On April 9, 2024

Attorney General Josh Stein says North Carolina has ended the rape kit backlog of untested older sexual assault kits, adding the Survivor Act played a big role. The bipartisan law helps prioritize sexual assault kits in the state. North Carolina officials have worked for years to end the backlog of thousands of untested kits.

A statewide inventory shows there were at least 16,000 in 2019. Stein said standards have been placed in the Survivor Act law, so that the state doesn’t have another sexual assault backlog again.

“Now there is a barcode on each and every sexual assault kit,” said Stein, at a press conference Tuesday. “And the victim has that number and can go to a website and we’ll know exactly where that kit is.”

Stein said there’s also a 48-hour requirement for hospitals to turn over sexual assault kits to law enforcement, and then law enforcement has 45 days to send the evidence to an accredited lab. The Attorney General office said as of April, nearly 12,000 kits have been tested or are in the process of being tested.

“There are a few reasons why the backlogs from 2002 took so long, that includes misinformation among agencies,” said Stein. “So some thought they were not supposed to be submitting kits when they could have submitted kits. Second, the science at this crime lab is infinitely better than what it was. What they can do to determine a DNA profile from a microscopic sample today, blows away what they could have done 20 years ago.”

According to a release, law enforcement have made 114 arrests based on hits from the sexual assault kits.

This piece was republished from WUNC.