Whether you came to us from the film BACKLOG, Backlogfilm.org or on your own thank you - we need your help BEFORE 2024.

THIS IS URGENT.

Today there are 100,000+ untested rape kits in the United States - every day that number grows. With this petition, we can show senators the need to reform our criminal justice system in the United States, and acknowledge that rape is a severe, unpunished crime. Let's set the tone in America, and hopefully the world will follow.

 

Is this true? 

Not only is it true, but for years now sexual assault survivors in the United States have been dismissed by the way our justice system is set up. The District Attorney decides if a case goes to trial. They deem many assault cases as "unwinnable" because they think the jury will not believe the victim and consequentially do not test their rape kits despite the success of tested rape kits tracking serial perpetrators. 

 

What do I intend to do?

I hope to bring a bill forward that proposes a quota of assault cases be taken to trial on a monthly basis. Our forefathers could not have for-seen the rampant injustice being suffered by sexual assault survivors, the stigma of silence attached because the perpetrators often "get away with it", and the root problem:

When our justice system does not believe the voices of a victim, why should anyone else?

 

Sign this petition to help us end the backlog - and also fix the problem that created it in the first place.

• There is an urgency to this request as a GRANT of $115 million to test rape kits expires in 2024. It has gone mostly unused. 

 

OUR BILL WILL:

1. Extend the term of the grant
2. Appoint an official for every county, to oversee that funds are accurately administered
3. Propose a state-based county quota for trying assault cases in court

 

Thank you for your time and signature - it makes a difference,

 

Jacqueline Elyse Rosenthal