For Immediate Release:
Monday, July 29, 2024
Contact: Nazneen Ahmed
919-716-0060
(RALEIGH) Attorney General Josh Stein today announced that the North Carolina State Crime Lab had 1,466 CODIS hits in the past fiscal year, breaking the previous record of 1,382 hits in fiscal year 2023. The State Crime Lab analyzes evidence and uploads DNA to CODIS, the system of local, state, and national criminal justice DNA databases. A hit occurs when the DNA sample matches that of a person with a previous conviction or arrest already in the CODIS system or when evidence is culled through forensic casework.
“I am incredibly grateful for the hard-working scientists at the State Crime Lab who test and analyze evidence,” said Attorney General Josh Stein. “Thanks to their dedication and expertise, law enforcement continues to take dangerous criminals off the street and make North Carolina safer and stronger.”
In June 2024, the State Crime Lab uploaded 991 samples to the CODIS database, which led to 65 hits within the database from people who were arrested, people convicted of offenses that require DNA collection, and evidence collected through forensic analysis. Since the State Crime Lab began using the CODIS system, they have seen more than 11,480 hits in CODIS. Those hits have aided more than 9,200 law enforcement investigations, including in April, when Attorney General Stein announced that convicted rapist Samuel Harris pleaded guilty and will serve two 15-year terms in prison.
Today’s update also comes on the heels of Attorney General Stein’s announcement in March that North Carolina has ended the rape kit backlog. The North Carolina Department of Justice continues to be as transparent as possible about the process of testing kits and updating the CODIS databases at www.ncdoj.gov/testthekits.
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