by Anita Wadhwani, Tennessee Lookout, October 16, 2024
The Tennessee Bureau of Investigation has made progress in shortening monthslong delays in laboratory testing of sexual assault evidence, according to a new audit by the state’s comptroller.
Two years ago, the bureau reported turnaround times of up to 45 weeks, delays that hindered criminal prosecutions and deferred justice for survivors.
That processing time has now dropped to 10 weeks, according to a comptroller report released Monday.
TBI Director David Rausch told a committee of lawmakers reviewing the report that the agency had hired 49 additional scientists—with another in the hiring process—to help speed up its forensic testing.
To help reduce the rape kit backlog, TBI officials also outsourced 908 kits to a private lab in Florida last year. This year, the bureau has contracted with the lab to test another 192 kits.
Sexual assault kits contain physical evidence—such as DNA—gathered from a victim that may serve to quickly identify a perpetrator once it undergoes forensic testing. After a kit is processed, it may be used to quickly identify a suspect whose DNA evidence has already been uploaded into crime databases.
The lengthy and routine delays in sexual assault evidence kit testing emerged into public view in 2022 after the brutal death of Memphis school teacher Eliza Fletcher, a 34-year-old kindergarten teacher and mother of two killed while on a morning jog.
Cleotha Abston, the man accused in Fletcher’s death, also raped a woman in 2021, a year before Fletcher’s death. According to law enforcement officials, a DNA match linking him to the 2021 crime was not completed until the day Fletcher’s body was found.
Abston was sentenced to 80 years in prison for the 2021 crime. He is charged with first-degree murder, especially aggravated kidnapping, tampering with evidence, and unlawful possession of a weapon in Fletcher’s killing and due to stand trial in February.
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