Rape victims in Louisiana would be able to track the status of their forensic exam kits under a bill aimed at holding accountable a state lab that has struggled with test backlogs.
State Sen. Beth Mizell, R-Franklinton, has said Senate Bill 169 would bring Louisiana in line with 40 other states by setting up a centralized system to track rape kits from when they are administered at a hospital to when they are tested at a lab.
“We are outliers in the way we handle rape kits and sexual assault,” she said at a recent hearing on the bill.
Louisiana State Police, which runs the state’s crime testing lab, would create the tracking system. It would be used by victims, prosecutors, police and medical personnel.
SB 169 has already cleared the Senate and two House committees; it could as soon as next week be considered by the full state House. If not amended, it would go to Gov. John Bel Edwards for his signature, which would make it law.
The bill is lawmakers’ latest attempt to set up more oversight of how Louisiana tests sexual assault and rape kits, after numerous victims and advocates have complained that lengthy testing delays dissuade victims from speaking out and allow rapists time to reoffend. Then-state Sen. JP Morrell, D-New Orleans, passed a law in 2018 setting up an oversight board to review rape kits and other sexual assault issues.
Mizell’s bill would allow victims to anonymously track or receive updates of the status of their rape kit.
It also provides consistent rules for submitting kits regardless of whether the perpetrator is known, something Mizell hopes will require more testing of rape kits that have gone untested in the past. And it seeks to ensure that rape victims are eligible for the full reimbursement of medical expenses. A state board had capped reimbursement at $1,000 for rape victims, compared to $15,000 for other crime victims, which upset advocates who believe the board misinterpreted the law, the Illuminator reported.
“Right now, we don’t know what kits are being tested versus not tested,” said Morgan Lamandre, head of the group Sexual Trauma Awareness and Response.
A state police official testified during a committee hearing last month that the agency will implement the system over several years, using a vendor to set up the tech. All medical facilities, law enforcement agencies and crime labs in the state would report to that same centralized system. The system would also standardize the type of kit used.
Lawmakers are set to earmark $1.5 million to state Police to help fund the new system, said Appropriations Chairman Jerome “Zee” Zeringue, R-Houma. Fiscal analysts say the bill will ultimately cost about $3 million over five years, though Mizell said the ongoing costs of maintaining the system will be less than the analysis says.
“Ultimately I think it’s going to result in many more successful prosecutions of sexual assault offenders,” said John Sinquefield, deputy attorney general and chair of the Louisiana Sexual Assault Oversight Commission, in a recent hearing.
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