Anthony Weiner: “Last year as we pursued the effort to step up the technology of DNA, we recognized that some fundamental things have…”

“Last year as we pursued the effort to step up the technology of DNA, we recognized that some fundamental things have been going on in the world for the last 10 years or so. As DNA has become an important crime-solving tool, States and localities have begun the process of databasing samples of DNA of convicted offenders. All 50 States have a program of one size or another, capturing one universe or another of convicted offenders; and we need to get all of them essentially in a giant Federal database so we can solve crimes. But according to data which was collected, a program funded by this Congress through legislation that I wrote in the Committee on the Judiciary, we have found that hundreds of thousands, in the neighborhood of 600,000, victims of crimes at whose crime scenes evidence has been collected is sitting on the shelves waiting to be analyzed for shortage of only one thing, money. No one thinks it is good policy. In fact, many of those victims are pressing up against the statute of limitations which means their case will not be able to be prosecuted, even if we get around to testing it.”