On September 20, the Senate Judiciary Committee approved, by voice vote, the Sexual Assault Forensic Evidence Registry (SAFER) Act (S. 3250).
The measure, sponsored by Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX), would amend the DNA Backlog Elimination Act (P.L. 106-546) to authorize the attorney general to make grants from the Debbie Smith DNA Backlog Grant Program to states and local governments to conduct audits of samples of sexual assault evidence that await testing. The bill would allocate at least seven percent of Debbie Smith grant funds for such audits between FY2013 and FY2017. States and local governments would be required to submit good-faith estimates of the number of samples to be audited and plans for performing the audits within one year of receiving the grant.
The legislation would require the attorney general to establish the Sexual Assault Forensic Evidence Registry within one year of the bill’s enactment. The registry would be administered by the Department of Justice, allow states and local governments to enter information into it, and track the testing and processing of samples. States and local jurisdictions would have 21 days to enter evidence into the registry once it was received; any change in status would have to be entered within 30 days.
Samples entered into the registry would need to contain the following information: the date and location of the sexual assault, the date the evidence sample was collected, the date the sample was entered into the registry, and the date(s) the sample became barred from use due to the jurisdiction’s statute of limitations. This information would allow for comparisons of backlog data between jurisdictions. Personally identifying information would not be entered into the registry. Samples not considered criminal evidence or those relating to sexual assaults for which prosecution is barred due to the statute of limitations would be exempt from entry into the registry.
