Wake DA: Wait times to test rape kits 'unacceptable;' suspect in 1990 rape arrested Saturday
The fact that it took 30 years to arrest someone for the rape of a 73-year-old woman is another example, Wake County District Attorney Lorrin Freeman says, that test delays for rape kits are "unacceptable."
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Cities, counties and the state have thousands of rape kits waiting to be tested, tests that can link the DNA from a rape to a suspect whose DNA is on file from another arrest.
“These kits have been waiting on the shelves of law enforcement statewide and in the State Crime Lab waiting to be able to be tested," Freeman said.
The Survivor Act, signed into law by Gov. Roy Cooper in 2019, required law enforcement agencies to identify any untested kits and send them to private labs or the State Crime lab, but there is a backlog there as well. According to a report from the State Crime Lab in October 2022, the average turnaround time to analyze a rape kit was about 18 months.
Progress has been incremental and slow, but steady.
Smith, 51, was charged with first-degree rape, first-degree sexual offense and kidnapping for a crime that took place when he was 20 years old. Since that time, he has racked up a criminal record that includes assault on a female in both 2011 and 2016, drug possession, communicating threats and multiple breaking and entering charges. He was most recently arrested on March 1 for criminal trespassing.
“We are grateful for this initiative and those cases that have been solved," Freeman said. "Any time we can bring justice to sexual assault victims, even decades after the fact, it’s really important for us to be able to do this.”
North Carolina Attorney General Josh Stein has also been a vocal advocate for the testing. His office said that $15 million has been spent to clear the backlog, and he expects all tests to be caught up by early 2024.
The victim in the 1990 case against Smith died in 1992. He was being held in the Wake County Detention Center on $1 million.
In a court hearing on Monday, he denied committing the rape.
"This charge is ridiculous. I did not do this," he said. "I was 19 years old. I didn't even know how to have sex then."
He acknowledged his criminal record, but said, "I am not a bad felon. I got into trouble a couple of times. I am not perfect.”
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