Governor Deal Signs Rape Kit Bill Into Law

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After a long path under the Gold Dome, a bill mandating the timely processing of rape kits for sexual assault victims has finally become law. / Wikimedia Commons

Gov. Nathan Deal has signed a bill mandating the timely processing of rape kits for sexual assault victims. 

The law, signed Tuesday, requires law enforcement officials to collect forensic evidence from sexual assaults within 96 hours of being notified and to send that evidence to the Georgia Bureau of Investigation within 30 days.

The measure also aims at clearing out the state’s backlog of untested rape kits, a number GBI Director Vernon Keenan estimates at 1,800.

The law requires law enforcement agencies to catalog those kits and send them to the GBI for investigation. 

“In the end, what we need to remember is that these kits are people,” said Rep. Scott Holcomb (D - Atlanta), the measure’s original sponsor, on Tuesday.

“These are victims who went through horrible crimes and then the taking of the kit itself was incredibly invasive and a process that lasted hours, and it’s our obligation and duty to make sure that justice is served.”

The bill’s path to becoming law was a difficult one. Holcomb introduced the “Pursuing Justice for Rape Victims” Act early in the 2016 session. It made it through the state House in February with a unanimous vote. 

The legislation stalled in the state Senate in the hands of the Health and Human Services Committee chaired by Sen. Renee Unterman (R - Buford). She claimed the bill wasn’t needed and said it wouldn’t make it out of her committee. It didn’t.

But Holcomb’s measure wasn’t dead. In the last days of the session, lawmakers gutted a bill sponsored by Sen. Elena Parent (D - Atlanta) and amended it to include the language of Holcomb’s original bill. That measure passed in the final hours of Sine Die.