Serial rapists are being allowed to walk free and commit more sexual assaults due to a backlog of thousands of untested rape kits in Detroit, according to a new report.
Out of 11,000 kits recovered from a Detroit storage facility in 2009, about 9,400 kits have never been tested in a lab, Opposing Views reported.
According to the Detroit Free Press, only 2,000 kits containing DNA evidence were tested.
A majority of rapists walked free due to the failure of finishing the tests and committed more crimes without having any of the evidence exposed, a Free Press investigation revealed.
Despite multiple DNA tests linking serial rapist DeShawn Starks to other crimes, he was reportedly granted parole in March 2013. Shortly after being released, Starks was convicted of homicide.
The Warne County Circuit Court sentenced him to 45 to 90 years in prison last month, Opposing Views reported.
"I feel like they could have did more," said the 34-year-old victim, who was assaulted by Starks in 2003.
In June 2006, another rape suspect, Eric Eugene Wilkes impersonated a police officer and sexually assaulted a deaf woman.
After six years, the victim's rape kit was finally tested. The DNA test linked Wilkes to three other rapes committed in 2011. He is now serving eight to 30 years in prison.
"The remaining 7,400 kits are expected to be tested this year after the state legislature put aside $4 million to send them to private labs," Opposing Views reported. "When they are tested, they are expected to generate as many as 2,000 hits in the Combined DNA Index System, which means a huge volume of new work for Detroit police and the court system."
"The pile is going to get higher and higher, deeper and deeper," Rebecca Campbell, a psychology professor at Michigan State University who was hired by the National Institute of Justice to evaluate how the Detroit rape kits were handled, told the Free Press.
"So much of the push at the national level has been test them, test them, test them," Campbell said. "OK, now what? We need to investigate and prosecute."
