Rape victims in Mississippi often wait years before officials test rape kits that could identify their attackers with some even stashed in the trunks of law-enforcement vehicles, but state lawmakers could change that this year. The Mississippi Legislature may also close decades-only spousal rape loopholes in state law.
At the Mississippi Capitol, Mississippi Center for Violence Prevention Executive Director Sandy Middleton said she spoke with an unnamed law-enforcement officer who currently has 50 untested rape kits in a refrigerator, “and some of them have been there for a year and a half.” Of those 50 kits, about 15 are related to child-rape cases, she said during a Feb. 21 press briefing.
In 2019, the Jackson Police Department said it alone had more than 600 untested sexual abuse and rape kits, some a decade old at the time. State law currently does not require agencies to test the kits.
But advocates say that House Bill 485, which is currently making its way through the Mississippi Legislature, could remedy the problem of long-unprocessed rape kits.
It would require a medical facility conducting forensic examination and preparing the sexual-assault evidence collection kit to inform a law enforcement agency for retrieval within four hours. Then, after receiving a call from a medical facility, the law enforcement agency would have 24 hours to obtain the kit, with the option to refrigerate it within two hours or to transport it immediately to the Mississippi Forensics Laboratory.
“All kits must be delivered to the Mississippi Forensics Laboratory no later than seven (7) calendar days from the date the law enforcement agency took physical possession of 73 the kit,” the bill states. “The Mississippi Forensics Laboratory shall test sexual assault evidence collection kits within forty-five (45) days of receipt from a law enforcement agency.”
Rep. Angela Cockerham, I-Magnolia, is sponsoring it, with Reps. Dana McLean, R-Columbus; Jill Ford, R-Madison; and Otis Anthony, D-Indianola, serving as co-sponsors.
The Mississippi House advanced H.B. 485 in a 117-0 vote on Feb. 2, and the Mississippi Senate Judiciary Division A Committee advanced it to the Senate floor on Feb. 28 where it