Senate Bill S6430B

                                 BILL NUMBER:  S6430

 TITLE OF BILL :  An act to amend the public health law and the
executive law, in relation to the reporting, testing and secure
transport of sexual offense evidence

 PURPOSE : To ensure that sexual offense evidence (rape kits) taken
from victims are transmitted to forensic labs and tested and entered
in the DNA data bank in a timely manner in order to match DNA against
other data banks. The bill also ensures rape kits are tracked from
hospital, to police agency to labs and that reports are provided to
DCJS on a quarterly basis

 SUMMARY OF PROVISIONS :

Sections 1 and 2 of the bill amend section 2805-i of the public health
law to require that hospitals and other health care providers
collecting sexual offense evidence document and report to the
Department of Health quarterly on the disposition or transfer of all
rape kits.

Section 3 of the bill adds two new sections to the executive law to,
subject to appropriations made for this purpose, directing that all
sexual offense evidence collected and surrendered to police agencies
pursuant to the PHL and connected to a criminal investigation shall be
sent to a forensic laboratory designated by DCJS within 10 days of
              

receipt and the forensic lab shall analyze the evidence received and
communicate the results to the submitting agency within 90 days of
receipt. Evidence collected prior to the effective date of this
section shall be submitted to labs within 180 days of the effective
date and such labs shall test such evidence within 120 days of receipt
Finally, the bill directs that a secure transport of sexual offense
evidence be established in order to reduce duplication and costs
associated with each police agency maintain the chain of custody of
evidence while transporting such evidence in a timely manner.

Section 4 of the bill provides an effective date.

 JUSTIFICATION :

Unlike many states, New York does not require evidence collected from
rape victims to be tested in a timely manner so that this information
can be included in federal DNA database CODIS to help resolve open
cases and make the important links that only DNA can. Victims that
undergo the process of submitting sexual offense evidence should have
the peace of mind that this evidence will in fact be tested.
Additionally, the state does not have a mechanism to track rape kit
evidence, so we have no idea how many untested kits there are around
the state. However, recent reports suggest that many precincts, some
more than others, continue to have untested kits on their shelves.
These untested kits may contain valuable information that once entered
into the DNA database may help solve unsolved crimes and exonerate the
innocent.

This legislation provides a mechanism, with stakeholder involvement,
to ensure all rape kits are tested and tracked by requiring
regulations establishing specific time frames for the transmittal and
processing of sexual offensive evidence collected and surrendered to
police agencies. It provides a longer time frame for testing rape kits
received prior to the new requirements to ensure resolving any backlog
does not interfere with cases requiring priority processing.  The bill
also assures local law enforcement is not burdened with unfunded
mandates by requiring DCJS to establish a system to coordinate the
transportation of sexual offense evidence to and from laboratories on
a regularly scheduled basis, and that fund sufficient to test the kits
in a timely manner be made available.
New York State is a national leader. We do not have a statute of
limitation for sexual assaults, we have a long standing process to
ensure hospitals and clinics are equipped to collect evidence, and we
require DNA samples be given upon all felony and most misdemeanor
convictions, meaning DNA collected in New York is routinely matched
against DNA in the federal data bank. There has been a national effort
to clean up backlogs of untested rape kits. In 2003 NYC received $2.5
million from the Federal DNA Backlog Reduction Program to test a
backlog of approximately 17,000 rape kits resulting in the City's rape
arrest record going up to 70%. While this was a significant investment
in New York City, we have no reliable data on how many untested rape
kits remain in New York State as a whole.  Other states are making
this commitment, and in 2014 Cy Vance used $38 million in settlement
money to help 32 jurisdictions and 20 states clean up their backlogs.
In 2015, New York took new bold measures enshrining the "enough is
enough" campaign against sexual assault on college campuses. This
legislation is the next step in ensuring that New York continues to be
a national leader and is doing all it can to protect women, support
victims and exonerate the innocent.

 LEGISLATIVE HISTORY : New Bill

 FISCAL IMPLICATIONS : To be determined.

 EFFECTIVE DATE : Immediately

                                 BILL NUMBER:  S6430A                Revised 03/21/16

 TITLE OF BILL :

An act to amend the public health law and the executive law, in
relation to the reporting, processing and secure transport of sexual
offense evidence kits

 PURPOSE :

To ensure that sexual offense evidence (rape kits) taken from victims
are transferred to forensic labs and processed and entered in the
Combined DNA Index System (CODIS) in a timely manner in order to match
DNA against other data banks. The bill also ensures rape kits are
tracked from hospital, to police agency to labs and that reports are
provided to DCJS on a quarterly basis.

 SUMMARY OF PROVISIONS :

Sections 1 and 2 of the bill amend section 2805-i of the public health
law to require that hospitals and other health care providers
collecting sexual offense evidence kits document and report to the
Department of Health quarterly on the disposition or transfer of all
rape kits.

Section 3 of the bill adds two new sections to the executive law,
              

subject to appropriations made for this purpose, directing that all
sexual offense evidence kits collected and surrendered to police
agencies pursuant to the PHL shall be submitted to a forensic
laboratory designated by DCJS within 10 days of receipt and the
forensic lab shall process the evidence received and communicate the
results to the submitting agency and the local DA, within 90 days of
receipt. Evidence collected prior to the effective date of this
section shall be submitted to labs within 180 days of the effective
date and such labs shall process such evidence within 120 days of
receipt. Finally, the bill directs that a secure transport of sexual
offense evidence be established in order to reduce duplication and
costs associated with each police agency maintaining the chain of
custody of evidence while transporting such evidence in a timely
manner.

Section 4 of the bill provides an effective date.

 JUSTIFICATION :

Unlike many states, New York does not require evidence collected from
rape victims to be processed in a timely manner so that this
information can be included in federal DNA database CODIS to help
resolve open cases and make the important links that only DNA can.
Victims that undergo the process of submitting sexual offense evidence
should have the peace of mind that this evidence will in fact be
processed. Additionally, the state does not have a mechanism to track
rape kit evidence, so we have no idea how many unprocessed kits there
are around the state. However, recent reports suggest that many
precincts, some more than others, continue to have unprocessed kits on
their shelves. These unprocessed kits may contain valuable information
that once entered into the DNA database may help solve unsolved crimes
and exonerate the innocent.

This legislation provides a mechanism to ensure all rape kits are
processed and tracked by requiring specific time frames for the
transmittal and processing of sexual offensive evidence collected and
surrendered to police agencies. It provides a longer time frame for
testing rape kits received prior to the new requirements to ensure
resolving any backlog does not interfere with cases requiring priority
processing. The bill also assures local law enforcement is not
burdened with unfunded mandates by requiring DCJS to establish a
system to coordinate the transportation of sexual offense evidence to
and from laboratories on a regularly scheduled basis, and that funding
sufficient to test the kits in a timely manner be made available.

New York State is a national leader. We do not have a statute of
limitations for the most serious sexual assaults, we have a long
standing process to ensure hospitals and clinics are equipped to
collect evidence, and we require DNA samples be given upon all felony
and most misdemeanor convictions, meaning DNA collected in New York is
routinely matched against DNA in the federal data bank. There has been
a national effort to clean up backlogs of unprocessed rape kits. In
2003 NYC received $2.5 million from the Federal DNA Backlog Reduction
Program to test a backlog of approximately 17,000 rape kits resulting
in the City's rape arrest record going up significantly. As a result
New York City does not have a backlog of untested kits. While this was
a considerable investment in the City, we have no reliable data on how
many unprocessed rape kits remain in New York State as a whole. Many
other states are making this commitment, and in 2014 District Attorney
Cy Vance used $38 million in settlement money to help 32 jurisdictions
and 20 states clean up their backlogs. In 2015, New York took new bold
measures enshrining the "enough is enough" campaign against sexual
assault on college campuses. This legislation is the next step in
ensuring that New York continues to be a national leader and is doing
all it can to protect women, support victims and exonerate the
innocent.

 LEGISLATIVE HISTORY :

New Bill

 FISCAL IMPLICATIONS :

To be determined

 EFFECTIVE DATE :
Immediately