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CBS aired a couple of violent crime stories. Bob Orr made his second appearance of the newscast to mark the looming execution of John Allen Muhammad by the Commonwealth of Virginia. Muhammad and his teenage accomplice Lee Boyd Malvo formed the sniper team that killed ten people in the suburbs of Washington DC in the fall of 2002. Orr reminded us of the terrified Beltway.
Armen Keteyian filed the second part of his Investigation into the failure of police to pursue rape as a serious crime. Monday he reported that a mere 25% of rape complaints nationwide result in arrest and prosecution, "a fraction of the rate for murder and aggravated assault." He called rape "surprisingly easy to get away with." Keteyian argued that this low rate is a deliberate policy: in New York City, for example, "prosecutors decided no more free passes for alleged rapists" and raised its arrest rate to 70%.
Monday, Keteyian pointed to forensic testing of evidence: "A staggering number of rape kits that could contain incriminating DNA evidence have never been sent to crime labs for testing." He cited the explanation from police departments that the $1,500 lab costs are too expensive. In part two, Keteyian noted that in 2003, the federal government allocated $755m to clear up a testing backlog "but still delays remain."
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