There is no crime, other than murder, which is more destructive and traumatic to the victim. The Office, which established the country’s first Sex Crimes Unit in 1974, has been at the forefront of responding sensitively to the needs of sex crime victims, their families and friends. The Sex Crimes Unit, which has grown from four lawyers in 1976 to more than 50 today, has a national reputation for its innovative approach to investigating and prosecuting sex offenses. Working with the State District Attorney’s Association, the Governor, and Legislature, the Office has eliminated unfair obstacles to conviction such as:
- the marital exemption in rape cases
- the requirement for earnest resistance
- the barring of testimony of children under the age of eleven
- cross-examination of rape victims about past sexual conduct solely for the purpose of attacking a victim’s credibility and
- the five-year statute of limitations for the most heinous sex crimes
The Office also pioneered the use of DNA evidence to exonerate suspects and convict offenders, and the use of John Doe indictments, based on DNA matches, to prevent the statute of limitations from elapsing in unsolved rapes.
- Continuing Innovation. The Office will continue its record of excellence in the investigation and prosecution of sex crime offenses, pressing for changes in law as required and using the latest developments in the rapidly evolving science of DNA forensics to exonerate suspects and prosecute offenders.
- We Remember You. The Office will continue to commit substantial resources to the DNA Project, currently staffed by two senior sex crimes prosecutors. This unit, which works closely with the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner’s gold standard DNA forensic technology unit and also trains investigators and prosecutors throughout the country, has used DNA technology to obtain indictments in scores of rape cases that had lain unsolved for many years. Almost invariably, the victim’s response is, “I thought I was the only one who remembered what happened to me.”
