Cantwell seeks money for DNA testing

Associated Press

SEATTLE — DNA evidence sitting on the shelves of police stations and labs in Washington could help solve more than 4,000 rape cases, but state scientists don’t have the resources to analyze it, U.S. Sen. Maria Cantwell said Wednesday.

"We owe each woman who has the courage to come forward, to report her sexual assault and to submit to a physical examination … that, at a minimum, the DNA evidence collected will be analyzed," Cantwell said.

The Washington Democrat joined King County Prosecutor Norm Maleng and representatives of the Washington State Crime Lab in pushing federal legislation that would provide money to states for DNA testing.

In the past five years, 17,115 women in Washington state have reported being raped and have been tested with rape kits, which use cotton swabs to collect semen from a victim. But DNA samples have only been tested in 4,165 of those cases, Cantwell’s office reported.

Of the remaining 12,950 unsolved cases, some 4,000 are considered to have good-quality DNA samples — meaning there’s a chance the cases could be solved if the material was analyzed by scientists, said Dr. Barry Logan, director of the state crime lab.

For now, that chance is fairly slim. It’s been two years since the crime lab began performing DNA analysis in rape cases where police have no suspect. Since then, testing has been done in 343 cases, with the results checked against a database of violent felons in the state.

Those tests have solved 28 cases — a "hit" rate of just 8 percent.

The success of such tests is expected to improve in July, once the state begins expanding its database to all felons, as well as to people convicted of certain gross misdemeanors, such as stalking. The database now contains DNA profiles of about 36,000 criminals; that number is expected to double by July 2003.

Virginia expanded its database to all felons in 1990. Since then, scientists there have reported hit rates in DNA cases as high as 40 percent.

But state and federal officials say it’s going to require more funding to take advantage of Washington’s improved database.

Currently, it takes the state crime lab six months on average to analyze a DNA sample. The lab is understaffed, and because it pays 15 percent to 20 percent less than its counterparts in other states, it has trouble attracting experienced scientists, Logan said.

Logan said he has asked the Legislature for 28 new positions and for new labs in Spokane and Vancouver, Wash. The crime lab in Seattle, one of four in the state, will move into a new space this fall.

Sens. Cantwell, Hillary Clinton and Joseph Biden have all proposed legislation that would provide money to states for DNA testing.

Cantwell’s bill does not specify how much money would be granted to states, but does say some would be used to train nurses in using rape kits. Washington state has seven official Sexual Assault Nurse Examiner programs, serving Vancouver, Olympia, Tacoma, Everett, Bremerton, Seattle and Wenatchee.