House OKs legislation to increase testing of rape evidence

Legislation intended to increase testing of sexual assault and rape evidence kits and get DNA results into a national database has cleared the House.

The House vote on Tuesday sends to the Senate the legislation that Democratic Rep. Melissa Wintrow says is good public safety policy.

The proposed law would allow victims to halt prosecutions, but the evidence would still be tested and submitted to the national database for potential matches.

The proposed law also puts in place less confusing rules for law enforcement when it comes to testing evidence kits. The new law clarifies that evidence will be tested unless it’s clear the case is unfounded.

Wintrow says the new law could help catch serial rapists using DNA matches.