Bill Passed to Increase Rape Victim's Rights

According to the Austin American Statesman, a bill passed through the Senate and House of Representatives last week that will help provide resources to forensic labs and reduce DNA testing backlogs. This will increase the time it takes to test DNA from crime scenes, especially those from rape cases. This increases the rights of rape victims by ensuring that their rapist will be found and taken off the streets more quickly than in the past. This bill could help rape victims feel a little safer knowing their rapist has been put behind bars and get justice they deserve.

Travis County has had to send their DNA evidence elsewhere to get tested since May because their forensic lab was closed, assumedly due to lack of resources. Having this bill passed could ensure that situations like this will no longer happen, and help those counties that need resources to reopen their own forensic lab. This bill will also help those that have been wrongly convicted. Having the resources to go back to older crimes and test the DNA could free those who have been wrongly convicted.

I am happy to hear that this bill passed through the Senate and House and Representatives. This is not only ensuring more funding will go to forensic labs, but also increase the rights of victims, especially rape victims. I believe this is a great step in the right direction to increase the rights of victims. As stated by the co-launcher of this bill, Leahy Cornyn:

“It is an outrage when an innocent person is wrongly convicted and imprisoned, and we must not let rape victims live in fear while evidence languishes in storage and criminals remain on our streets.”