The evidence should all be examined when the accused is arrested, and before court. But, most people are scared to accept a plea deal, and when that happens, all evidence is basically shelved and innocent people go to prison. And this is only one state!
08/10/2011
By GREG GROOGAN
HOUSTON - With its billions of tax dollars, residents have built impressive stadiums, slick rail systems and hundreds of other laudable improvements.
And yet what eludes this city, after a decade of tragic error, is a properly functioning crime lab.
"There are years, even decades of evidence that hasn't been examined yet," City Councilman C.O. Bradford said.
== Shut It Down ==
Bradford's campaign to shutdown HPD'S crime lab has been bolstered by yet another troubling revelation: the fresh discovery of 3,000 or more un-analyzed "rape” kits from victims of sexual assault.
When combined with a previously acknowledged backlog, the new total is more than 7,000 cases for which the evidence has never been examined.
"We also, very possibly, have innocent people who are incarcerated or who have served time that they shouldn't have served because we failed to examine the evidence," Bradford said.
== Pleas Kicked to the Corner ==
Sonia Corrales of the Houston Area Women's Center speaks for many frustrated sexual assault survivors who've seen their plea for justice kicked to the corner and all but forgotten.
"Sometimes they begin to lose hope when they see that their rape kit or their case is not moving forward," Corrales said. "What then the message is, you know, if I report than nothing is going to get done.”
== Too Little, Too Late ==
The HPD crime lab is reportedly employing federal grant money to reduce the backlog of untested rape cases.
Bradford sees the effort as too little and far too late.
"It is shameful that we have victims that are being punished a second time," he said.
He advocates creation of a regional crime lab in partnership with Harris County.
