North Carolina Attorney General Josh Stein says a new law to fund testing for sexual assault kits sitting in law enforcement evidence closets will put rapists in prison and ensure a backlog never happens again.
Stein, police and sexual assault victim advocates held a news conference on Thursday at the State Crime Laboratory to praise the measure signed the day before by Gov. Roy Cooper.
An audit determined there were 15,000 untested kits located across the state as of last year. The measure includes $6 million over two years and requires police and sheriffs to submit future kits for testing within 45 days.
The measure is one of four Cooper signed this week that contained otherwise popular provisions from the state budget bill that Cooper vetoed for other reasons.