Kentucky's state crime lab takes 13 months to process DNA evidence, and 800 sexual assault kits sit untested while suspects remain free to reoffend

As of late 2024, DNA and biology evidence testing at the Kentucky State Police forensic laboratory takes an average of 13 months to complete. Approximately 800 sexual assault kits submitted within the past two years sit in a queue awaiting testing. This is not a historical backlog of forgotten evidence from decades ago; these are kits collected from recent victims who underwent invasive forensic examinations, reported their assaults to law enforcement, and were told that the evidence would be tested. Thirteen months later, many of those kits remain untouched. Kentucky is not an outlier: Wisconsin's average DNA turnaround rose to 129 days in 2024, Colorado's sexual assault kit turnaround hit 570 days, and labs across the country report similar delays. The human cost is specific and measurable. Serial rapists who could be identified through CODIS database hits remain free during the months or years that evidence sits untested. Victims who reported their assaults in good faith lose confidence in the system and stop cooperating with prosecutors. Cases that depend on DNA corroboration are dismissed when the evidence is not available by the time speedy trial deadlines arrive. Prosecutors decline to file charges because they cannot tell juries that the DNA evidence supports their case when it has not been processed. Defense attorneys cannot mount effective defenses when the evidence that might exonerate their clients is sitting in a lab queue. The 13-month delay is not a bureaucratic inconvenience; it is a period during which violent offenders remain unidentified, victims remain in danger, and the justice system fails everyone it is supposed to serve. The structural cause is straightforward: state legislatures mandate that crime labs test evidence within specific timeframes but do not appropriate the money to hire enough analysts to meet those mandates. Training a new DNA analyst takes 12 to 18 months. Starting salaries for forensic scientists in state labs are roughly $50,000 to $67,000, well below what pharmaceutical companies, biotech firms, and private labs pay for the same skills. Crime labs cannot hire fast enough to replace the analysts who leave for better-paying private sector jobs, and they cannot retain experienced analysts who can train new ones. The result is a permanent structural deficit: more evidence comes in each year than labs can process, and the backlog grows.