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* Jerry Nowicki at Capitol News Illinois…
When an Illinois Senate panel met last March to discuss the state’s backlog of untested forensic evidence, there were more than 70 DNA samples in murder cases more than a year old awaiting action from Illinois State Police forensic investigators.
That number is down to 14, representatives of the Illinois State Police told the same Senate Public Health Committee on Tuesday, but they noted the number is still too high and standard wait times for DNA processing are still too long. […]
ISP Director Brendan Kelly said there are several challenges facing the agency, but around October, the completion of DNA tests began outpacing the number of tests coming in for the first time in years.
The average time for processing DNA evidence is about 215 days, or seven months, Kelly said, adding that the goal was to get to six months. That number shrank from 288 days in September.
I would suggest that six months is still too long.
* WCIA…
Kelly made a point to include references to increased numbers of qualified staff available because of a positive state budget counteracting previous cuts. He stated completion rates of biology/DNA assignments finally outpaced the incoming evidence with the backlog decreasing 16% since last year.
Regarding 70 unsolved Chicago homicide cases with DNA evidence at the lab discussed in a previous committee meeting, Assistant Deputy Director Woolery stated testing on all but two cases has been completed and the two outstanding cases were awaiting court action.
posted by Rich Miller
Wednesday, Jan 29, 20 @ 9:39 am
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To give credit where credit is due, I think Brendan Kelly has turned out to be an excellent appointment by the Pritzker administration.
Comment by Candy Dogood Wednesday, Jan 29, 20 @ 9:59 am
== To give credit where credit is due, I think Brendan Kelly has turned out to be an excellent appointment by the Pritzker administration.==
Hiring and training for these additional analysts that have allowed them to chip away at the backlog, takes a long time, more than a year, so it’s also worth remembering that the wheels for these changes were in motion under the previous Director as well.
Comment by fs Wednesday, Jan 29, 20 @ 10:06 am
==takes a long time, more than a year,==
One of the few things Rauner got right. And I’m not a fan.
Comment by Anyone Remember Wednesday, Jan 29, 20 @ 10:11 am
Agree that 6 months is still too long.
Throwing money at a problem is usually a bad idea. This is an exception to that rule. Even if you overspend on tech and employee’s I see very few poor outcomes in this situation. If and when you get caught up on the current dna backlog the use of tech and technicians could be expanded to other crimes that seriously affect our quality of life. There are currently many types of serious crimes where the best tech is not being used.
Comment by Winderweezle Wednesday, Jan 29, 20 @ 10:25 am