In this post I will be examining the events that eventually led to the Debbie Smith Act of 2004.
On May 3rd, 1989, while spending the afternoon in her Virginia home, Debbie Smith was attacked by a masked man. Her assailant came in through the back door, dragged her to a wooded area where he robbed and raped her. And like many women, Debbie simply wanted to forget the whole thing had ever happened. She wanted to take a shower and wash away the memory. Her husband, however, convinced her to go to the police and have a rape kit done. Debbie says now, looking back, that was the best decision she could have made. And six years later, on July 26, 1995, after finally being pushed through the backlog, her rape kit identified her attacker. He was in prison for a separate offense, and had been arrested only a few months after he had raped her. Debbie, however, had to wait six years, living in fear that he would return, until she was finally granted the knowledge that she was safe.
However, many women are not that lucky. Some cases pass the statute of limitations before the kit has been tested, which means that the case can never go to court and justice will never be had for that victim. After finally hearing that her rapist was behind bars, Debbie began a cross-country appeal to have DNA testing and matching a regular and consistent part of every rape investigation. She even appealed to House Government Reform Committee. Then on November 1, 2004 the Debbie Smith Act, authored by Rep. Carolyn Maloney, was signed into legislation.
I have a friend who has been reading my blog, however since she does not have an account and needs one to comment, she cannot comment. She has asked me a question after reading this post. I thought it was a good question and after reading back through my post I realized that I should have put this in. She asked me what exactly the Debbie Smith Act of 2004 did. I will answer it here.
ReplyDeleteThe Debbie Smith Act essentially provides a government backed grant of over a billion dollars total to different states and cities which have a high number of untested DNA kits. This money is also used to train forensic examiners, police and prosecutors and to fund research that could improve the collection and processing of the evidence by creating a standard method that would be used across the nation.