By BRENT MARTIN
St. Joseph Post
A St. Joseph state representative says a bill passing this legislative session could greatly boost the case against sexual predators.
Rep. Shelia Solon says as the legislative session wound down to a close, she chose to quickly move a Senate bill through her House Children and Families Committee to ensure it had time to pass.
“This is a bill that I felt was so important and so important to victims of sexual assault that I passed it clean out of my committee,” Solon tells St. Joseph Post.
If changes are made to legislation from the other chamber, it must be returned to that chamber to consider the alterations. When the end of the legislative session approaches that could easily kill a bill.
Senate Bill 569 contained the rape kit provisions. Solon moved it from her committee to the House floor for debate. The House approved with measure without changing it and sent it to Gov. Mike Parson.
A main provision of the bill will require the state to track rape kits and preserve their contents, vital in the prosecution of sexual assault cases. Missouri has a backlog of some 7,000 rape kits, 90% of which remain untested.
Solon says the backlog of rape kits denies the victim justice and healing.
“If a victim of a sexual assault is brave enough to go to the hospital, answer questions that are difficult and humiliating, and give the necessary, invasive physical evidence, we need to ensure that that evidence is tested and that along with the rape kit, the collectibles that contain DNA evidence are secured and tracked and preserved to convict the offenders,” Solon says.
Solon says the backlog of sexual assault evidence has greatly hampered criminal cases.
“These kits and this collateral evidence will lead to convictions of serial rapists and keep them off the streets and from assaulting other victims,” Solon says.
Under the bill, the Department of Public Safety will create a central repository for unreported rape kits that is temperature-controlled to preserve the integrity of the kits. Unreported kits shall be retained for 5 years; except in the case of minor victims, the retention period shall be until 5 years after the victim reaches 18.
Records will be entered into an electronic tracking system and will be kept confidential.
The bill also would require all Missouri hospitals to have kits on hand and have personnel trained to properly administer them and preserve their evidence for trial.