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Legal questions mount amid San Francisco rape kit DNA case

A state senator is considering options to change a law that allows DNA from rape kits to be used to charge victims with unrelated crimes.
Credit: AP
San Francisco District Attorney Chesa Boudin holds a report at a news conference in San Francisco, Tuesday, Feb. 15, 2022. Boudin's stunning assertion that police crime labs are using rape and sexual assault survivors' DNA without their consent to investigate unrelated crimes and storing the DNA indefinitely has shocked prosecutors nationwide, as sexual assault victims' groups decry the chilling effect it could have on people willing to report sexual assaults. (AP Photo/Olga R. Rodrigues)

SAN FRANCISCO — The revelation that the San Francisco police crime lab used a sexual assault victim’s DNA against her in an unrelated property crime case — and the allegation that it may be a common practice in California — has prompted a national outcry among law enforcement, legal experts, lawmakers and advocates. 

Investigators allegedly used a sexual assault victim’s DNA collected as part of a rape kit in 2016, to tie her to a burglary in late 2021. 

But just because the law doesn’t seem to specifically forbid the practice of using a victim’s DNA against them, experts say it’s almost unfathomable it was even considered — let alone carried out. A state senator is considering options to change the law.

Click here to read the full AP story. 

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