Shereen Darwish 63 min

20 Years of Impact - A Retrospective of the Debbie Smith Actdeo


The 20th anniversary of the US congressional passage of the Debbie Smith Act marks a significant milestone in the ongoing efforts to improve funding opportunities for DNA crime labs and reduce the backlog of samples. Since its enactment, the Debbie Smith Act has played a crucial role in addressing the challenges faced by crime labs across the country. The Act has provided substantial financial support to DNA crime labs, enabling them to enhance their capabilities, expand their resources, and accelerate the processing of DNA evidence. By allocating funds specifically for reducing the backlog of samples, the Act has facilitated the timely analysis of DNA evidence, leading to more efficient investigations and improved criminal justice outcomes. Furthermore, the Debbie Smith Act has not only contributed to the reduction of DNA sample backlogs but has also played a vital role in advancing forensic science. By investing in research and development, training programs, and technology upgrades, the Act has propelled the field forward, ensuring that crime labs remain at the forefront of scientific advancements. The impact of the Debbie Smith Act over the past two decades cannot be overstated. It has not only provided financial resources to address the backlog of DNA samples but has also increased public safety by facilitating the identification and apprehension of offenders. Additionally, the Act has brought solace to victims and their families by expediting the resolution of cases and providing closure. As we commemorate the 20th anniversary of the Debbie Smith Act, it is essential to acknowledge the significant progress made in reducing the backlog of DNA samples and enhancing the capabilities of crime labs. However, challenges remain, and continued support and funding are crucial to sustain and further improve the effectiveness of DNA crime labs across the United States.



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[ Silence ]

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[ Silence ]

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[ Music ]

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Hi, I'm Texas Senator John Cornyn.

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I want to welcome you to the Human Identification Solutions Conference.

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As you know, this year marks the 20th anniversary of the Debbie Smith Act.

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I first met Debbie in 2003, and I was inspired by her story and her commitment

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to making sure victims of sexual assault don't have to live in fear of their

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offenders.

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The Debbie Smith Act has played a critical role in the fight in the rape kit

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backlog nationwide.

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Since it became law, more than 1.5 million cases using DNA analysis funded by

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this program

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have been completed.

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Last year I introduced a bill to reauthorize it, and I'm working with my

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colleagues in Congress

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to get it across the finish line.

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Debbie, your advocacy has transformed the lives of thousands of survivors,

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and I'm confident it will continue to do so in the years to come.

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Congratulations on this remarkable milestone, and keep up the great work.

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[ Music ]

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[ Silence ]

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[ Silence ]

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Can you maybe share a little bit about your story?

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I will never forget that day.

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[ Silence ]

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I was cleaning house, I was doing laundry, I was trying to get ready for a lun

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cheon

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that was going to happen at my house the next day.

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And as I was doing all of that, I remembered that we were going to have dinner

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with friends

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that evening, and I was the one supposed to bring the dessert.

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So I started making that, and checked the dryer, it didn't seem to be working,

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right?

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So I went outside to check the exhaust vent.

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When I came in, though, I decided to leave my back door unlocked because I was

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going to go in

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and grab the trash and come right back out.

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Rob was upstairs asleep after having been up for like 36 hours, but it was not

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unlike him

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to come down in the middle of sleeping and just check in on me, see what I was

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doing,

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and then he'd go back upstairs. At that point it was probably about quarter to

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one in the afternoon.

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I mean, it was a nice neighborhood. I wasn't concerned.

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I was getting ready to grab the trash and I went, "Oh my gosh, I need to finish

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the dessert first."

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As I had the mixer running, somebody came up behind me, and he put his arm

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around my throat.

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I was patting his arm and saying, "What are you doing up?"

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And so at the same time that I'm patting his arm, he was in my ear, and I knew

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that something wasn't right.

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He had on a face mask up against my face, and he was saying, "Don't scream or I

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'll kill you."

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And at the same time he was showing me a baseball bat.

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I was trying to make sense out of everything, and he took me and turned me.

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He never let me see his face, and he started towards the door.

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I didn't scream. I didn't fight except for when he started taking me down the

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garage steps to the outdoor that led to the outside.

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As we were going outside, I did get away from him as he was turning to close

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the door.

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And I tried to run up the garage steps, and I tripped and I fell.

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He jerked me up, and he kept telling me not to scream, that he wasn't going to

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hurt me and all this stuff.

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But I knew the statistics.

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That if he took me out of that house, I probably wasn't coming back.

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I decided just to relinquish myself to him because I didn't want Rob to come

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downstairs thinking that I'd cut myself for something if I screamed, and that

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he would end up dead, and my children would have nobody.

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So he took me out to these woods that were behind my house.

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And he kept saying, "I don't know why you're so upset, lady, because I was

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crying. There's no reason for you to be upset."

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Then he robbed me and raped me, repeatedly.

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And I thought for sure he was going to kill me.

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He finally let me go, and as he was getting me dressed, I will never forget.

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He was brushing off the leaves from the back of my pants, and he said, "I don't

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mean to be touching you like this lady."

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And it made my mind kind of go crazy.

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He asked me, "Did I know where I was?" And I said, "No," because he blindfolded

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me with my t-shirt.

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He told me how to get out of the woods, and where my house was. I had a

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Christian station on when he came into the house.

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And as I was leaving the woods, he said, "Lady?" And I stopped, and I said, "

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Yes."

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And he said, "You keep listening to that Christian radio." I said, "Okay." And

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then I walked a little bit further.

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He said, "Like your door, she won't help you."

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I will never forget that, because in my mind, all of this was my fault, because

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I'd just locked that door.

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That door is always locked. Always, it was always locked.

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And I came home and I ran upstairs, and I woke him with the words, "He got me

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wrong. He got me."

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[music]

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He picked up the phone to call the police, and I said, "No, please don't,

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please don't."

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I said, he said that he would kill us all if you call the police. He knows when

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he kept telling me, "I know where you live.

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I will return, and I will kill you." So I begged him not to, but he knew that

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we had to report this.

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So he called the police, and I hid it for the shower.

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I just wanted to wash it off of me. I wanted to wash his smell off of me.

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I wanted to wash him out of me. I just wanted to forget it.

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And Rock came running in the bathroom. He says, "I can't let you do this."

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I actually literally had to pick her up and haul her out of the bathroom. She

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was kicking and screaming and fight me.

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It was a hard thing to do, but I knew that's what we had to do.

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And for six and a half years, I thought I'd made the wrong decision since we

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had no results.

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So as a law enforcement officer, that was your first thought. Even in 1989, you

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were just hoping for anything.

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Yes. Anything and everything.

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What did you know about rape, kit, testing, anything at that point?

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Well, just that. They would do what they could with it, but it was limited.

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And I knew back then, a shower would have, that would have been it, wouldn't

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have helped anything at all.

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[Music]

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The whole thing for me, it's almost, from training, it's just almost automatic.

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I just, my mind clicks and I start doing what protocol calls for.

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And fortunately, it all went well in that regard.

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But the problem was there was nothing in the limited database that we had at

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the time to be a match.

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[Music]

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At that time, I think that the database was just a thought. It was just

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beginning.

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As we were talking in '89, I think it was a couple more years before Virginia

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actually had a database, which was even ahead of the US database.

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Everything that I thought was true, I no longer was sure was true.

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I just wanted them to find it and I wanted my life back again.

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I wanted not to live in constant fear and I was trying to find a way to do that

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and to keep my children safe.

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[Music]

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So then, it's been five years, what happens?

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Blood draws were being done, that was being examined and a scientist in our

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state lab named George Lee was typing in prisoner samples, very routine, very

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mundane work.

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And as he's typing in this one, his computer acts up according to the way he

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said it. He said, "I thought my computer was messed up."

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It was a match, a fourth cold match in the history of the country.

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And very excitedly, when he got a supervisor who then did another test without

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any information other than those numbers.

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And once he got the same results, then they were able to contact the local

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police department.

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[Music]

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I get called into the station to see the deputy chief and I'm like, "Okay, did

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I do something wrong or do one of my guys do something wrong?"

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And I'm trying to figure out what it could possibly be because if you know what

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's wrong, you can prepare your defense.

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I couldn't come up with anything and when I pulled in, he was standing there

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and I thought, "Okay, this is not good at all."

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We're a police department, we go after people all the time, but he leaned in

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and said, "We got him."

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And I knew immediately who he was talking about.

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He was a little concerned, I might feel like it's a siren and getting a wreck

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or something, but I drove that Mark Police Cruiser in uniform 25 miles an hour

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until I got home crying the whole way.

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[Music]

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Rob walked into the living room July the 24th of 1995.

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He had the composite that had been drawn six and a half years before.

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And he handed it to me and he said, "You can throw it away because we don't

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need it anymore."

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[Music]

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That was the day that we were able to deliver that news that took so long, but

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it was worth the wait in the end.

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[Music]

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I just, it was the first time that I took a deliberate breath.

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I kept praying that I would just die of something.

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So I wanted to kill myself, but I knew that when he said that, it was like, "I

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want to live again."

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And I could breathe because I knew my children would be safe.

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And I didn't have to keep looking over my shoulder to see if he was there.

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The noises in the house didn't scare me anymore. I didn't jump out of my skin.

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I wanted to live life again. And that was an amazing feeling.

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I was the type of person that went to church but prayed that nobody would talk

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to me.

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If I went to the grocery store, it was hard for me to be around other people.

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I figured at my age now, I would be at home on my front porch with all of my

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grandchildren around me.

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And that was my life. And that's really all I wanted until this.

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[Music]

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And when this happened, I knew that I had to help women find a way through this

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Because I knew that I had much more support than most of them did.

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I had a husband who was very patient and very loving through all of this.

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I had children who were very supportive. And I just didn't know what my passion

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was until this happened.

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Once you find your passion, you have to unleash it. Now nobody can shut me up.

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[Music]

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Well, the thing that I think people need to know and understand about the work

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she does now,

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she only does it because of the intent to help others.

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When this all started, we'd get a phone call. I would take the call and say, "

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Look, they want you to go here and speak about this."

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And she said, "No, I can't do that." And I convinced her that it's going to

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help other people.

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"Okay, I'll do that." When they wanted to do a movie about her story, "Oh, I

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can't do that."

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I would just look at, think about all the women who would watch this and

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benefit from what you experienced.

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Okay, I'll do it. But it's with reluctance and only because of someone else,

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which she do any of those.

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I guess I never wanted to be a paid victim or I never wanted to be if I was

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going to use my victimization.

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It had to help somebody else. It had to be worth it.

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If it hadn't been for Rob and Paul Ferrara and Chris Asplin, I can tell you I

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wouldn't be here.

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I wouldn't be doing that, this very thing. I wouldn't have had the nerve. I

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wouldn't have had the courage to walk into a congressional office and talk to

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the people that I have.

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It all started when Paul Ferrara, Virginia's state lab director, came to my

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trial because he wanted to see how his scientists performed under pressure and

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delivering their side of it that he needed it to be done in a layman's voice.

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So the 12 on the jury could understand it. It couldn't be scientific talk.

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One person can make a difference. Someone has a voice enough to get somebody

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else's attention and then stay with it.

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Then it can be accomplished. Somebody's got to be a spark.

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And I think a lot of times that spark is the victim who can benefit from the

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results of the legislation.

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And I guess how Debbie's been so powerful. And now fortunately we have more and

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more women in this country coming forward.

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Well, my passion has led us to start an organization called HEART is an acronym

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for Hope Exists After Rape Trauma.

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And that's what I want women to know is that for me it was the end of my life

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for a long time.

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I couldn't even imagine even ever feeling normal again.

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But with HEART, one of the things that we do is to educate people about the

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value of DNA and encourage different states, countries, to use it to its

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fullest extent.

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The thing that's closest to my heart, again, is the personal where I can look

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at a woman and I can help her to find a new normal,

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to find a different way of life, a way back to life again, and how to live it

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and how to be better moms and better sisters and wives and just whoever they

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want to be.

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One of my big jobs is fundraising. Debbie is the type of person who could be

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literally starving who would not ask you for a slice of bread.

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So we would not be funded at all if it was left to her, but we do legislative

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work, not just the Debbie Smith Act.

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We've weighed in on different states and their causes.

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And never for Debbie to have any more notoriety, but any legislation that will

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have a beneficial effect for victims and doesn't go contrary to things that we

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believe in, we will weigh in wherever it takes us,

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or whatever we have to do.

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It's been the same with this bill. As we've learned more, we've had to add some

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things.

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And I think that it's given me an opportunity to help in even more ways than I

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thought.

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And that is, I think one of the great things about all of this is that I've had

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so many people in my life that helped me to realize something inside of me that

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I didn't know was there.

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And when I went to go meet with my perpetrator, I looked at him and I said to

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him, I said, "I hold nothing against you because what you did brought out

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something in me I never knew existed and would never have imagined existed

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within me."

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And I believe that. And I guess kind of my mantra has been through all of this.

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What I thought was the worst day in my life has brought about some of my

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greatest joys.

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And I can tell you every time that I look a woman in the face, and she says to

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me, "It was because of that money that was brought into our lab. That's why my

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case was solved."

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What more can you ask for?

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When George Lee went to work that day, I'm sure that he thought it was just

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another day at the lab, but he had no idea that when he pressed to enter, that

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it was going to save the life of a family.

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And thank you for going to work every day because what you do every day saved

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my life.

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Just keep doing what you're doing because it does make a difference.

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[Music]

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I know I've spent enough time with Rob and Debbie to know that every now and

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then Debbie will refer to herself as the poster child for DNA.

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And I have a different view of that poster.

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She's the poster child for courage.

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Courage isn't the absence of fear, right? It's doing what you know you need to

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do in the presence of fear.

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And everything that Debbie has done has been courageous. Her survival that day,

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her becoming the center of attention when she's an introvert, right?

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Dealing with politicians, traveling when she does not like to travel.

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Surviving her survival. I know she talks about the dark places that her mind

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went.

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She is one of the most courageous people I've ever met.

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And that being said, if you look at the poster, you have to zoom out a bit.

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You have to zoom out because the picture of her has to include her hand.

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It's got Rob's hand there too.

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Because it's been their journey, it's been their mission, it's been their gift.

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Thousands and thousands and maybe millions of people will never meet.

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Who will never have the opportunity to say thank you to them.

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But they deserve that thanks.

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I started life off as a professional life off as a prosecutor in a local

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district attorney's office in Pennsylvania.

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But I specialized in prosecuting child abuse and sex crimes.

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And that was way back in 1989. And it was at the very, very, very beginning of

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the use of DNA technology.

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It very quickly became clear that the power of DNA technology was going to be

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very relevant to the kinds of cases that I prosecuted.

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It was going to be able to keep me from having to ask six and seven and eight-

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year-old little girls from testifying in court.

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And it was going to cause a lot more guilty pleas than I had previously had.

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So just by nature of the kinds of crimes that I prosecuted, I became very

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interested in forensic DNA technology.

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I eventually took a position with the National District Attorney's Association

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in Alexandria and began training prosecutors and police officers across the

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country on the utilization of DNA at the time.

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And joined the US Attorney's Office in the Washington, D.C. office under

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Attorney General Janet Reno.

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While I was there, Ms. Reno created through the National Institute of Justice

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the National Commission on the Future of DNA Evidence.

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Because of my background as a prosecutor and as a trainer, they asked me to be

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the executive director of the National Commission.

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The Commission was established really more based on what we were learning about

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the exoneration of individuals through DNA.

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And Ms. Reno recognized that if we were getting it wrong as often as we were

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and proving that definitively through DNA, that there were a lot more cases

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that we were missing.

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And so she established the Commission to look at fundamentally how do we

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maximize the potential of DNA technology across the entire criminal justice

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system.

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The public was just starting to understand that there was this thing called DNA

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out there and we're beginning to ask a lot of questions appropriately so.

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So pretty quickly the work of the Commission got a lot of attention because you

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also had things like the O.J. Simpson case.

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And DNA in and of itself began to be a much more public issue and people began

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to ask a lot of questions about it.

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And that was really the motivation behind Ms. Reno's creation of the Commission

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because again she recognized there must be something that was really important.

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There must be so much more that we can be doing.

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So I would say it was more her vision and her wisdom to create it than it

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really was kind of public outcry at that point.

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And so you're on the Commission so then what happens?

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So I'm the Executive Director of the Commission. The Commission is chaired by

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Shirley Abrahamson. And one of the particular issues that we identified was really this, the

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burgeoning backlog of rape kits and other evidence but primarily rape kits.

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Prior to the CODIS system, whether it was Estes or Endes or Eldis, it made a

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lot of sense for law enforcement not to ask for testing of a rape kit if they

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didn't have a suspect.

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If they never got a suspect then that would just be wasted money.

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So it was appropriate to be able to go onto a shelf and pull a kit off, have it

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tested when the traditional investigative process took over and we identified a

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suspect.

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But then once we implement CODIS, that whole dynamic and that whole decision

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making process no longer makes sense.

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Because now more through computing power than through forensic technology

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itself, we had an opportunity to identify individuals even if we didn't have a

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suspect.

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And that was fundamentally a different proposition than what we'd been working

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under.

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But also the problem was the laboratory infrastructure throughout the whole

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country was never designed or built for forensic DNA.

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So what happens is we run up against number one, an immediate volume of cases

27:52

that need to be tested in an infrastructure laboratory system that is

27:57

inadequate to handle it.

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And you also have law enforcement being conservative and not always quick to

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move on new ideas.

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And so what began to happen was the backlog of rape kits just got bigger and

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bigger and bigger and bigger.

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And that was one of the things that the Commission identified.

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We could identify about maybe 150,000 rape kits that were untested, but the

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question then became, okay, how do we deal with this?

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Because fundamentally what we realized was that we now had the ability to do

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things that we didn't have before.

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We had an ability to solve crime.

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And that imposed on us a responsibility to do that.

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And so we had a responsibility to figure out this whole problem of backlog rape

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kits.

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And that's what the Commission set out to do.

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You know, Dr. Paul Freira, can you tell us a little bit about knowing him, his

29:10

involvement and eventually leading to?

29:13

Yeah, sure.

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So, as we began to identify this issue, the issue of the expanding backlogs, I

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was talking to the chair of the Commission, Justice Abrahamson.

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And I said to her, we really need a story here.

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We need a way to explain this to the public because very clearly the public was

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going to have to get behind this effort.

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We weren't going to be able to fix this very quickly.

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And so I talked to her and I said, we should have someone come in and tell a

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story of what's happened.

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And it was interesting because Justice Abrahamson's response was, well, no,

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everybody on the Commission already understands the impact of what goes on here

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And she was thinking very judiciously, she was thinking like a judge.

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I was thinking like a prosecutor and I'm like, no, no, no, we need to tell a

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story.

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And part of that was also because I was getting phone calls at the office all

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the time about this issue.

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And I needed a way to respond.

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And so I convinced Justice Abrahamson that we should find a story for that

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purpose.

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And then my idea was when I would get a phone call from the press asking me to

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explain this, I would say, read this transcript and then come back and I'll

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talk to you.

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Once you understand it at a gut level at what our responsibility is here, then

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call me back.

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So that's where where Paul Ferrar comes in.

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And how hard was it to to find anyone at that time that was willing to?

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It was difficult, it was difficult because understandably this is a new issue

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and nobody likes to be re-traumatized by telling their story again.

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And especially since I had spent so much time as a prosecutor dealing with

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victims of sexual assaults, I understood that very deeply.

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And so I talked to Paul Ferrar about it.

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Paul was a visionary in the application of DNA technology.

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While the rest of us were moving as fast as we could to help integrate the

31:32

technology into the criminal justice system, Paul was always, you know, a

31:39

hundred yards ahead of us doing something new, doing something different.

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Whether or not it was entering a restee profiles into the database before us or

31:47

attacking the backlog, Paul was the guy to go to and I miss him dearly.

31:53

But I went to Paul and I suggested this idea to him.

31:57

I said we would really benefit in this discussion if we could have a story of

32:03

the impact of the untested riches.

32:07

And he thought about it and he said, I might have somebody.

32:13

He said I have an idea.

32:15

Let me talk to her first and we'll see if she's interested in doing it and I'll

32:21

get back to you.

32:23

And so he did that and he contacted Debbie Smith and her husband Rob called me

32:30

back and said, they'll talk to you.

32:33

He said, I can't guarantee that they'll do it, but they'll talk to you.

32:37

And so we did.

32:39

I called her, ultimately convinced her to come and testify.

32:49

What was that like talking to her? What did you even say to her?

32:54

Well, I think I just tried to explain the import of it and I hope that I

32:58

expressed an appreciation for the difficulty of the task and understanding that

33:05

I think pretty quickly I got the phone held, handed over to Rob and talked to

33:10

Rob and one thing that I realized early on was that this was always a package

33:16

deal and I mean that in the best of ways.

33:19

And I've been blessed to work a lot with Rob and Deb since then and it has

33:24

always been a team effort.

33:27

And that's been very important and I think it has really helped to extend the

33:33

impact of what they do.

33:36

I think it really empowers Debbie to do more because Rob's always there with

33:41

her.

33:42

[Music]

33:55

And so we did. So we had that conversation. They agreed to come out to Chicago

34:01

and meet with the commission, which not knowing Debbie at the time, but knowing

34:06

Debbie now and the extreme introvert that she is.

34:11

To become the center of attention like that was a really, really big deal. She

34:16

wasn't comfortable traveling. I knew that.

34:19

But then she sat down in front of the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of

34:25

Wisconsin, William Webster, who had been the Director of the FBI and the CIA,

34:31

who was also on the commission.

34:32

From people like Barry Shek, who was on the commission and a number of other

34:39

really important influential people.

34:44

And she told her story.

34:53

And everything changed. Everything changed.

35:03

The extent to which the honesty of her experience came through made it

35:12

undeniable that we had to fix this problem.

35:20

And we needed to do it sooner rather than later. Because what we understood

35:25

intellectually was that our failure to do so meant that there were going to be

35:31

more victims.

35:32

And that for every month that a rape kit remained untested, what that meant was

35:40

the perpetrator was out committing other crimes.

35:43

And someday we'd know who they were. Once the database got populated enough,

35:49

and once we did enough testing, we would understand who was victimized because

35:53

we didn't do enough.

35:56

We didn't do the right thing by taking up the responsibility to implement the

36:01

technology to its fullest.

36:04

Because what? Money? That was it.

36:08

[Music]

36:23

So now we had a way to face, and we had a heart to the issue.

36:31

Did you have any idea during that meeting what that was going to spark?

36:37

No. No. None of us. None of us could have seen that coming.

36:43

Particularly because you couldn't have seen Debbie moving forward doing more.

36:51

We appreciated what she did, but we knew that it was mentally and emotionally

36:55

exhausting for her.

36:56

So the idea that it would carry on beyond that wasn't anywhere on our radar.

37:02

Now, I kind of understood that she was going to become not a celebrity, but

37:10

that press was going to be reaching out to her.

37:12

And I think we tried to help her with that. I certainly understood that that

37:15

was going to happen, but the extent to which it then carried on beyond that, I

37:19

had no idea in the world.

37:21

What it enabled us to do was begin to think about how we reduce this backlog.

37:31

And internally in the Department of Justice, so I started talking to some of

37:34

our folks at the Commission and I was talking to my Deputy Director, Dr. Lisa

37:39

Foreman at the time.

37:41

And we began to think that the federal government outsources a lot of things.

37:48

The Department of Justice outsources a lot of stuff to the private sector.

37:53

And we began to say maybe, at least initially, the answer here is to outsource

37:58

some of these cases.

38:00

And so we kind of had that idea, again, I called Paul Ferrara, the visionary.

38:06

Paul's response was, oh yeah, I've been doing that for six months now.

38:10

And of course that'll work. No reason I can't. Because all you're doing is you

38:13

're sending it out for testing and then sending it back.

38:16

Internally, we developed an idea for a funded project through DOJ, through the

38:20

National Institute of Justice.

38:23

And I got it high enough up the chain that I was given permission to take it

38:27

directly to Ms. Reno herself.

38:30

I had written out my entire presentation to explain the dynamic, to talk about

38:35

Debbie's representation, and then to see where we were going.

38:39

And we were trying to get money specifically to outsource cases and then have

38:43

them inputted.

38:44

The morning comes, and I'm sending it to this end of this long table in the

38:48

Attorney General's office.

38:50

And I get about 45 seconds to a minute into my presentation.

39:00

I'm looking at her and she goes, she goes.

39:06

So in other words, the sooner the rape kits get tested, the sooner the rapes

39:15

stop.

39:17

Yep.

39:22

And in that room, she leans over and she whispers to her executive assistant.

39:30

She says, "Thank you very much." And a week later, we're working with the

39:35

lawyers to get funding out the door.

39:39

And that was the first time that the federal government funded the outsourcing

39:43

of rape kits to begin to tackle this problem.

39:47

So once we get to the point where we recognize that a problem, here's what we

39:55

can do as DOJ.

39:57

Now it's got to be legislatively enabled, right? Somebody's got to pass a law

40:00

that says this is important, and more importantly, somebody has to fund it.

40:04

In Washington, D.C., in the Jefferson Memorial, there are four panels on the

40:10

interior, and they have different writings of Thomas Jefferson's.

40:15

And on one of the panels, it says something to the effect of, "I am not an

40:19

advocate for the frequent change of laws."

40:24

However, laws and institutions must go hand in hand with the progress of the

40:30

human mind.

40:31

But it gets to the point that laws and institutions must keep progress with the

40:37

changing times.

40:39

And that's the Debbie Smith Act.

40:43

That's the recognition that our understanding of what we can do has changed

40:49

significantly.

40:51

Our ability to prevent sexual assault has changed. We know that. We can't deny

40:56

it.

40:57

We keep trying to deny it because we're not building labs fast enough or big

41:01

enough.

41:02

We can deny it, but we've got to do something about this.

41:07

And that's really where the Debbie Smith Act comes in.

41:10

It's kind of the perfect example of what Thomas Jefferson was talking about.

41:14

That's why it was so important for someone like Debbie or the team of Debbie

41:20

and Rob to move forward with it and to do their own advocacy for the change of

41:27

laws and institutions.

41:29

And then it's their story from there.

41:34

When the Commission started, there were really only two states that allowed for

41:41

the reopening of a case based on newly discovered evidence at a time when all

41:49

the appeals had run.

41:50

And so the problem was, you know, we're coming 25 years after a conviction.

41:55

And we're realizing that if someone was convicted, but now we can go back and

42:02

look at the rape kit.

42:04

And we could potentially determine actual innocence, not whether or not they

42:07

had a good lawyer or not, whether or not they were treated fairly a trial, etc.

42:12

We can determine that they're innocent people.

42:16

Again, it goes back to, wait a minute, we have that responsibility,

42:19

particularly as prosecutors.

42:21

Our responsibility was justice. It wasn't convictions, it was justice.

42:25

And so only two states had the legal ability to reopen a case once the appeals

42:31

had run.

42:32

In states all over the country, we could look at a case ago, yep, if we did

42:36

that DNA testing and it didn't match the perpetrator, he'd be an innocent man.

42:43

And the courts would say, yeah, but you can't open it up. You can't get into

42:47

court.

42:49

Really? And that was an astounding recognition.

42:54

And now every state in the country allows for that possibility.

42:59

Even if you've run your appeals, if new evidence comes up like that where we

43:02

can determine innocence, and while that was understandable, that had to change.

43:09

And I think it has changed. It took a long while.

43:11

I mentioned previously law enforcement is a little conservative and takes them

43:15

a little while.

43:16

It took prosecutors a long time to wrap their heads around the idea that the

43:22

floodgates weren't just going to open.

43:25

What's the most important element in the utilization of DNA technology that

43:29

maximizes its effectiveness?

43:32

What's the most important thing? Is it law enforcement's ability to collect and

43:36

identify the evidence?

43:38

Is it the laboratory sophistication in being able to test the material?

43:43

It's none of those. The most important factor that determines the effectiveness

43:49

of DNA technology is what the law allows you to do with it.

43:54

Because if the law doesn't allow you to use it, none of the rest of it matters.

43:59

And in the United States, the law is also how you get funded.

44:03

Right? So if the law doesn't fund it, if you don't have an appropriations bill

44:06

that's going to fund the DNA testing, none of the rest of it matters.

44:12

The story of the Debbie Smith Act is one that recognizes our responsibility and

44:21

then maximizes our potential to uphold that responsibility.

44:26

When I was running the commission, my daughter was about that big.

44:32

And so you're going to work every day going, this is why. It's this important

44:39

because you never know.

44:42

And if we hadn't all come together, and if Ms. Reno hadn't had the vision to do

44:47

what she did, and if Debbie hadn't had the courage to do what she did,

44:53

there would have been a multitude of victims. We'll never know their names and

44:57

that's okay. It's a good thing that we don't know who they are because of all

45:05

the work that everybody did.

45:10

It's been 20 years since the Debbie Smith Act was passed. And I was so excited

45:18

that first time when Ms. Reno let us create a small little project for

45:24

outsourcing, I never would have anticipated that 20 years later,

45:32

we'd be sitting here talking about legislation that at least was allocated at

45:38

what $150 million a year.

45:42

That's stunning to me. It has got to be one of the most successful financial

45:50

programs that DOJ has ever put out,

45:54

particularly if you think about it in terms of absolute identifiable impact.

46:04

The Debbie Smith Act goes directly to things that every single time we get a

46:11

hit because of the Debbie Smith Act,

46:13

specifically because of Debbie Smith. We know the value of it. We feel the

46:18

value of it. And that's a really great thing to be a part of.

46:30

At the time of the sexual assault, the rape of Debbie Smith, the databases

46:43

really were nonexistent. They were very immature. They were just something that

46:50

was held locally.

46:52

It's been 35 years since her rape. We're talking about the late 1980s. I think

46:58

it was 1989. That was her rape. And so if anybody had a database, it was in an

47:04

Excel spreadsheet just done by hand. No software, no real tools.

47:09

So the power of the data basing and the full power of DNA typing was not

47:14

realized at the time. The DNA Identification Act of 1994 legitimized, formal

47:20

ized, legislated, the ability to set up a DNA database that would be managed,

47:28

operated, maintained by the FBI.

47:31

Also to set standards for operation of DNA typing and operation of DNA

47:37

databases and to authorize the collection of samples under certain crimes such

47:45

as violent crimes.

47:48

And that and so it was a cornerstone, I guess, for setting up databases and

47:53

moving the country forward. Because once that legislation went in place, the

47:58

FBI then took a leadership role.

48:01

Everything came together because of the DNA Identification Act. And from 1994

48:06

until 1998, when CODIS went online, a number of things happened.

48:12

But also it was important to form the DNA advisory board to help bring some of

48:16

the practices together and set up the standards that would be put in place.

48:22

So all these different moving parts were coming together so that we could have

48:26

this operation. So back in the beginning, none of this was available.

48:31

And in fact, people who were assaulted, victims of crime, their DNA was being

48:38

analyzed at local levels. Some of those took years to be solved because we didn

48:44

't have a mature DNA database system.

48:47

But as the years progressed and people understood better how to make better

48:52

make use of DNA for investigative liens linking crimes together, those cases

48:57

that had been sitting for a while unresolved started to be solved.

49:02

And then active cases began to be solved. And that was the real value of the

49:08

DNA database. The other recognition came in fact, it came from initially from

49:12

some research done in the Department of Forensic Sciences in recent years.

49:16

In the Department of Forensic Sciences in Virginia, as they started to get hits

49:21

in CODIS, they recognized that around 60% of the hits started where people who

49:27

started with lesser crimes.

49:30

In other words, they were graduating up to the hits that they were getting in

49:34

the case work. Now that's an important point because when CODIS started for

49:40

lots of reasons that were tactical or practical at the time,

49:45

they took in DNA samples from violent crimes, homicides, sexual assaults, and

49:51

crimes of that nature.

49:53

Those got hits, but the hits were at a low percentage, 5%, 10% of searches had

49:59

hits. Virginia's research demonstrated that a good portion of these individuals

50:04

were committing lesser crimes.

50:07

That was a motivation to expand the database to all felonies so that you get

50:11

people in who were committing these violent crimes early on.

50:16

The number of profiles in CODIS today of reference profiles that predominantly

50:21

are convicted offenders, arrestees, and some other categories is over 20

50:27

million today.

50:29

This great, incredible tool that the FBI developed cost millions of dollars.

50:35

Other countries also need DNA database software and tools so that they can take

50:40

advantage and exploit the power of DNA typing.

50:43

The FBI has made as gracious, I think, and very helpful to their brothers and

50:49

sisters across the world who need the same tools and will make CODIS available

50:55

to those authorities that are appropriate in those countries to obtain and

51:01

manage the software.

51:03

So there's, I think, around 50 plus countries that have requested from the FBI

51:08

develop letters of agreement and understanding to take ownership of CODIS,

51:15

implement it, and run it independent of the FBI in their countries to do the

51:20

same thing that we do in the US.

51:23

How would one commemorate the 25 years since the inception of CODIS and the 20

51:47

years of the Debbie Smith Act?

51:50

That's a really tough decision because I think we should be commemorating it

51:55

every day.

51:56

There has been over two billion dollars dedicated to supporting DNA

52:02

identification databases and helping solve crimes, preventing victims to ever

52:09

become victims of crime because of the Debbie Smith Act and CODIS.

52:15

We should be commemorating every day that a case is solved and a victim gets

52:20

some resolution. A survivor gets some resolution. Her families, the communities

52:27

bring some resolution and that some crimes may never occur because of the act.

52:33

So if I were to commemorate it, I would just say every day we should thank all

52:37

those who put their time and effort into it, all the people who had the vision

52:42

to bring this forward, all the victims like the Debbie Smith and many others

52:47

like Julie Wilde, Ashley Spence and others who have become the spokes persons

52:55

out there advocating.

52:56

So those who have the fear or distrust or the lack of security to speak now can

53:03

have this realization. We should commemorate all those people and we should

53:08

continue to commemorate and to urge others to keep trying to provide more

53:13

resources, more education, more training so that we can make the best use of

53:20

these tools, not just for today, but for the new technologies and

53:24

services that we see coming in the future, currently and in the future, that

53:29

will help solve more cases and be able to analyze more evidence than ever we

53:34

could imagine, even back in the early days and even today.

53:53

Prior to the enactment of the Debbie Smith Act, I remember that time period

53:58

very well. It was a time period where we had a tremendous backlog of friends

54:07

and cases awaiting testing.

54:09

We had an extremely inefficient labor-intensive, slow testing process and we

54:16

had extremely high expectations and frustrations among our external customers,

54:24

each and every district attorney, judges at the Beness Bowl District and

54:28

Circuit Court level, everybody wanting results in a timely manner.

54:34

This was a time where friends and laboratory personnel in the DNA sections were

54:40

extremely burdened with too much work, inefficient laboratory processes, slow

54:47

DNA technologies in the analytical space to result in the DNA profile and very

54:55

little to no capacity to keep up with the amount of requests for our services.

55:01

When the Debbie Smith Act was enacted, it provided a mechanism to not only

55:06

assist friends and laboratories in providing accurate, high quality, reliable

55:13

results in a more timely manner, but equally as important.

55:18

It provided resources to allow laboratories to explore and validate new

55:23

technologies, to implement capacity enhancement measures to build their

55:28

infrastructure, either through robotics, more efficient computer systems,

55:35

software improvements,

55:38

additional technologies that allowed you to look at smaller and smaller pieces

55:43

of DNA to get results from samples that you couldn't get results from in

55:48

previous years.

55:50

And that, as the years have gone on, has revolutionized the forensic DNA

55:55

laboratory so that now we are routinely able to generate a complete, very

56:00

highly specific DNA profile from less than one nanogram of DNA.

56:06

And as I explained to juries on a regular basis, one nanogram is an extremely

56:11

small piece of evidentiary material.

56:15

To put it into perspective, in the United States, the paper clips that we all

56:19

utilize routinely to hold our papers together are manufactured to weigh exactly

56:25

one gram.

56:27

If you took one of those paper clips and cut it in a billion pieces, one of

56:33

those pieces is an anagram.

56:35

And that is how much DNA we now need and want to generate a complete DNA

56:41

profile that is eligible for both entry and searching in the National DNA Index

56:46

System.

56:47

That is only made possible through the advances provided by the Debbie Smith

56:51

Act over the last 20 years.

56:54

I don't believe forensic DNA analysts at the bench level fully appreciate the

56:59

impact of the Debbie Smith Act if it was to go away.

57:04

The results would be catastrophic because as the years have gone on, law

57:08

enforcement has become more and more educated about the power of forensic DNA

57:14

testing, which has resulted in increased request for services.

57:18

So, while we have implemented a lot of laboratory improvements to build our

57:24

infrastructure, build our laboratory capacity so that we could process more and

57:29

more samples and more and more cases in a timely manner, the request for those

57:33

services continued to increase.

57:36

And then in our state as well as many others throughout the union, it has

57:41

allowed us to also then have the ability to go back to cold cases to unsolved

57:46

homicides and unsolved sexual assaults that occurred pre DNA, where if that

57:52

evidence is available and still present within a property room at a local

57:56

police department, it can also then be submitted to the laboratory

58:00

so that the date that a victim was assaulted did not prohibit 21st century DNA

58:06

technology from being utilized to help identify the perpetrator in her case.

58:12

What that ends up doing is you get additions to the backlog of cases from cases

58:18

occurring today, as well as those that occurred in the 70s and 80s.

58:23

So, if the Debbie Smith Act was not reauthorized, the resources necessary to

58:28

continue to keep up with the increased request for forensic DNA testing would

58:33

go away.

58:34

And states throughout this country would not have the capability to keep up

58:40

with those requests.

58:42

Going and helping to educate our congressional officials has been one of the

58:46

most rewarding aspects of my 30 plus year career.

58:50

By being able to provide them from a practitioner standpoint, the importance of

58:55

the Debbie Smith Act and how it touches every town in every community, in every

59:02

city, in every county, in every state, in our union,

59:07

it drives home that message to each and every one of our elected officials in

59:10

both the House of Representatives as well as the U.S. Senate that the Debbie

59:14

Smith Act is benefiting the constituents within their district.

59:19

And while all acts are important, the reauthorization of the Debbie Smith Act

59:24

is arguably one of the most important things because it touches every community

59:28

throughout our country.

59:30

There is a tremendous amount of statistics and endless case examples of how

59:36

funding from the Debbie Smith Act has helped solve previously unsolved sexual

59:44

assault cases, homicide cases, burglary cases,

59:48

how we've prevented burglars from escalating the sexual assault.

59:53

But as I look back over the last 20 years, I believe the biggest benefit is in

59:58

the ability of the forensic laboratory to prevent serial predators from

01:00:04

offending again.

01:00:06

But the real benefit through the Debbie Smith Act, I believe, in my estimation,

01:00:11

is that women, daughters, mothers, sisters, walking around America today will

01:00:16

not become victims, and I think we're privileged to have that ability and

01:00:21

responsibility.

01:00:23

Early on in my career, I had the pleasure of first being introduced to both Rob

01:00:29

and Debbie Smith when they traveled to Montgomery, Alabama, and first came to

01:00:36

one of our facilities and wanted to learn about the important work that we do.

01:00:41

The impact that Debbie and Rob made on me personally as well as each and every

01:00:46

member of our staff and our forensic science family was significant and has

01:00:52

only continued to grow.

01:00:55

And her and Rob continue to make an impact on our forensic science family

01:01:00

professionally. And if there's one thing I would want to say to both Debbie and

01:01:05

Rob on this, the 20th anniversary of the enactment of the Debbie Smith Act, it

01:01:11

's thank you.

01:01:13

Thank you for your time and your efforts and your talents in turning a tragic

01:01:20

event to help serve and better our communities. Your work has mattered.

01:01:28

Your work continues to matter, and your work positively impacts every town,

01:01:33

every community, every city, and every county, and every state, and our union.

01:01:39

And on behalf of all the friends and glad professionals, not just in Alabama,

01:01:43

but throughout this country, we love you and we thank you.

01:01:48

[Music]

01:02:04

And to the criminal justice community, law enforcement, lab analysts who are

01:02:14

receiving this funding to keep our society safe, what would you say to them?

01:02:25

What you do every single day matters. Every single day you get up and you get

01:02:28

in your car and you drive to the lab or you drive to the office or you put your

01:02:32

life on the line because you're a police officer or, you know, as your up late

01:02:37

at night away from your kids as a prosecutor, getting ready for your case the

01:02:42

next day.

01:02:44

Man, it matters. And it's a gift in life to do something with such purpose.

01:02:53

And it matters so much in people's lives. It's so tangibly matters in people's

01:02:57

lives. And it doesn't always feel that way.

01:03:01

And sometimes you don't even know you did it. You don't know that person that

01:03:08

gets convicted.

01:03:10

You don't know who the next little girl is going to be.

01:03:15

It just matters that there would have been another little girl except for the

01:03:20

fact that you got up and you drove to work that you found.

01:03:24

And again, you deserve great thanks and appreciation for that.

01:03:32

You deserve a thank you too.

01:03:35

Thanks.

01:03:37

[Music]

01:03:47

(music)

01:03:49

[ Silence ]