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Rape Victim Pleads For Vote On Bill To Require Rape Kit Testing
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UPDATE: A short time ago, The House passed Rep. Scott Holcomb’s Pursuing Justice for Rape Victims Act. The chamber gutted a Senate bill, SB 304, and attached Holcomb’s measure to it. It passed on a unanimous vote. It now needs to go back to the Senate for approval.
“I am a rape survivor,” Lisa Anderson stated as she stood at a podium inside a crowded room at the Georgia Capitol.
Anderson was part of a group of women’s advocates from around the state who made the trip to the Gold Dome one day last week in support of Rep. Scott Holcomb’s (D-Atlanta) bill to mandate testing of more than 1,500 backlogged rape test kits in Georgia. But the “Pursing Justice For Rape Victims Act,” or HB 827, has been stalled in a Senate committee since it was sent to the chamber after a unanimous vote in the House in February.
Anderson, who did not have a rape kit done after her attack years ago, said she only reported the assault after she discovered her attacker had raped other women. She supports Holcomb’s measure because she believes HB 827 can help prevent others from becoming victims.
“It’s a horrible experience and the rape kit itself takes some extraordinary courage, which I personally didn’t have,” she explained during a press conference over the stalled HB 827.
“This is such a service to the public, going through a rape kit, and making this evidence available so that we can prevent future instances of sexual violence,” Anderson added.
The legislation has bi-partisan support, but when it arrived in the Senate Health and Human Services Committee it was blocked.
Committee Chairwoman Renee Unterman told GPB News that HB 827 “won’t make it out of her committee this session” because she said “it just isn’t needed.”
“Law enforcement is already addressing this problem,” Unterman reasoned.
Holcomb and supporters disagree
“What we know is that across the state there is no single protocol requiring the timely processing of rape kits. That is a fact,” Holcomb said
“We also know that we do not have a full understanding of the depth of the problem,” he added. He said HB 827 would require timely testing of rape kits and an accurate count of how many remain untested.
Officials estimated that in 2015 there were more than 1,400 rape kits sitting on shelves at law enforcement agencies and in hospitals across Georgia. The problem is not limited to Georgia, but is one that is impacting law enforcement agencies around the country.
With just a day left in the session now, the future of the rape kit testing legislation looks bleak. The Atlanta Democrat called a press conference late last week to try and pressure Unterman into holding a hearing on his bill.
He and the bill’s supporters said if nothing else, untested rape kits pose a public safety risk.
“We also know that evidence that has been identified by forcing the testing of the kits has led to prosecution of serial rapists,” Holcomb asserted.
Women’s advocate Lisa Anderson said rape kit testing can not only lead to a suspect, but the results can keep innocent people out of jail, too.
“There are people who are put in jail who should not be put in jail. So it both enables good conviction rates, as well as accurate convictions,” she stressed.
“It’s like having a cure for a disease available, something that can prevent horrific violence against women because rape happens again,” Anderson contended.
“The rate of recidivism among rapists is very high and anything that we can do to prevent that is so important,” she stated.
While there is just a day left in the 2016 legislative session and the future of HB 827 seems sealed, that might not be the case just yet. In the past couple weeks, bills that have seemed dead have suddenly found new life by hitching a ride on the coattails of another bill. So anything can happen on this last day of the session.
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