05.14.02

Senator Cantwell's Statement (as prepared) before the Judiciary Subcommittee on Crime and Drugs hearing on Using DNA Evidence to Combat Crime

Thank you Mr. Chairman:

"And thank you for holding this hearing and for inviting Debbie Smith to testify. As you know I have introduced legislation named in honor of Debbie, and I believe that after you hear her testimony today you will understand why.

"As you know, the Debbie Smith Act will pay for DNA testing of the tens of thousands of rape kits that are currently gathering dust in police offices and labs all around the country, and that will help get more rapists caught and convicted.

"Mr. Chairman, Senator Clinton, who I believe will be here a bit later, has also introduced a bill on this issue, and is also strongly committed to seeing the current lack of funding for DNA testing addressed. She is a cosponsor of the Debbie Smith Act, and she and I have agreed to combine the complementary aspects of our two bills as we move forward in considering how best to address this issue.

"Debbie Smith's experience is testimony to the power of DNA evidence. It would have been impossible to solve a "no suspect" case like Debbie's without the use of DNA evidence. It took six years for the forensic evidence sample taken at the time of her rape to be cross checked against the Virginia database of convicted felons. But, when the comparison was made, her attacker was found and he was sentenced to two life terms plus 25 years.

"Debbie Smith has put her own experience with DNA testing to good use. By talking openly about her own rape, I believe that she is partially responsible for the increase that we are seeing in the reporting of rape. Having the courage to share her story has helped us realize that the next sexual assault victim could be our sister, our daughter, our wife, or our mother.

"Debbie, I promise to work hard to ensure that Congress addresses this issue and gets needed funding to law enforcement.

"According to the Department of Justice, a woman is raped every two minutes. One in three women will be sexually assaulted in her lifetime. In my home state of Washington the number of sexual assaults is even higher. According to the Washington state Office of Crime Victims Advocacy 38 percent of women in my state have been sexually assaulted.

"If women have the courage to come forward and report a sexual assault, and to submit to a physical examination and evidence gathering, we owe them an absolute guarantee that at a minimum that sample will be analyzed and checked against databases of known sexual offenders and violent felons. That is what Debbie Smith and every woman who is sexually assaulted each year deserves, and that is what I am determined to accomplish.

"In order to do this we need to provide funding that both allows states to build databases of convicted felons and provides for DNA testing in "no suspect" rape cases. My own state of Washington recently passed a law requiring that all felons provide DNA samples, but they like many states will need help in finding the necessary funding to get these samples into a database.

"Women who are raped also deserve to receive respectful treatment, by people trained to collect and preserve forensic evidence. That is what the Sexual Assault Nurse Examiner program or SANE does.

"SANE nurses can make the difference to women. In 1995, a young woman at home in Olympia, Washington state was raped at gunpoint. She said the SANE nurses who collected DNA evidence after the assault "made [her] feel at ease, more confident, and more comfortable." The DNA entered into the database matched that of a convicted serial rapist Jeffrey Paul McKechnie, the "I-5 Rapist," resulting in his conviction for the crime.

"Today we will be hearing from one of our witnesses about the SANE program and its 200 operations nationwide. Because the SANE program operates largely without federal funding, it expansion has been limited.

"The Debbie Smith Act will provide funding to allow SANE to be expanded into clinics and hospitals across the country. By providing funding we will see this program in more communities, and ensure that increasing numbers of rape survivors are treated with professional care.

"Mr. Chairman, you are a recognized leader on the issue of violence against women, and both Senator Clinton and I look forward to working with you to pass legislation that recognizes the commitment we owe to Debbie Smith and women like her to get the rape kits tested and put more rapists in jail."