“Every unprocessed rape kit represents a victim who has been denied justice,” said Representative Carolyn Maloney.
“There are still thousands of rape cases that remain unsolved, even though we have all the DNA evidence we need to find and convict the rapists,” said Scott Berkowitz.
Sarah Palin’s hometown newspaper, the Mat-Su Valley Frontiersman, was given an interview September 30. They asked, “Were any sexual assault victims ever charged for this [rape kit] testing while you were mayor?”
She answered, “The entire notion of making a victim of a crime pay for anything is crazy. I do not believe, nor have I ever believed, that rape victims should have to pay for an evidence-gathering test. As governor, I worked in a variety of ways to tackle the problem of sexual assault and rape, including making domestic violence a priority of my administration.”
But Sarah! The Associated Press reports in a story headlined “Palin’s town billed rape victims to get evidence“:
When Sarah Palin was mayor of Wasilla, the city billed sexual assault victims and their insurance companies for the cost of rape kits and forensic examinations. Palin had been in office for four years when the practice of charging rape victims got the attention of state lawmakers in 2000, who passed a bill to stop the practice.
September 27, 2008 – (Washington, DC) – “The Debbie Smith Act is the most important piece of anti-rape legislation that Congress has ever passed, and its reauthorization is a victory for thousands of sexual assault victims whose perpetrators have yet to be identified. The bill extends critical funding for the processing of the DNA backlog of rape kits and other forensic evidence.” [link to RAINN]
There seems to be a specific objection to Rape Kits or a part of their procedure or methodology that annoys Palin. I haven’t found what this is.