Rep. Cox to help create sexual assault kit test guidelines
State Rep. Laura Cox has been named to Gov. Rick Snyder’s Assault Kit Tracking and Reporting Commission by House Speaker Kevin Cotter.
The commission was created by law last year and is tasked with developing guidelines to effectively implement a statewide system to track location, lab status, and completed test results for sexual assault evidence kits.
“For too long Michigan has had a disorganized and unregulated system for the testing of this evidence and that is unacceptable,” said Rep. Cox, R-Livonia. “I look forward to working with the commission to find a way to ensure none of these kits are overlooked and that the money is spent wisely and efficiently.”
The commission was created after the discovery of 11,000 untested evidence kits in a Detroit Police storage facility. To date 10,000 of those kits have been sent for testing.
“The incident that occurred in Detroit absolutely cannot happen again,” Rep. Cox said. “Victims of these horrible crimes need assurance that the state will do everything they can to identify and prosecute their attackers. My hope is that the guidelines created by this commission will give them a ray of hope in what must be a dark tunnel.”
Other members of the commission will include the Attorney General, the director of the Michigan State Police and representatives from various health and law enforcement organizations.
ABA backs legislation to require unanimity in death penalty verdicts
American Bar Association President William C. Hubbard sent a letter to four Florida legislative leaders Monday asking them to pass Senate Bill 664 and House Bill 139, which would require jury unanimity in death penalty verdicts and sentencing in the state.
The ABA House of Delegates passed Resolution 108A last month that urges all federal, state, and territorial governments that impose capital punishment, and the military, to require that:
Before a court can impose a sentence of death, a jury must unanimously recommend or vote to impose that sentence; and
The jury in such cases must also unanimously agree on the existence of any fact that is a prerequisite for eligibility for the death penalty and on the specific aggravating factors that have each been proven beyond a reasonable doubt.
While the ABA takes no position on the death penalty per se, the association has a strong interest in ensuring a fair and accurate justice system.
Florida is one of only three states that does not require unanimity and, in fact, only requires a simple majority, to impose the death penalty. In addition to the recent policy, the ABA also recommended changing Florida laws allowing non-unanimous jury recommendations that death be imposed in its 2006 Florida Death Penalty Assessment Report.
“We have extensively studied the operation of the death penalty in the U.S. criminal justice system and have taken the position that governments should take great care to ensure that death penalty cases are administered fairly and impartially, in accordance with due process, and minimize the risk that innocent persons may be executed,” Hubbard wrote.
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