New DNA law allowing Tulsa Police to take a second look at unsolved rape cases

Tulsa Police make quick work of the state's new DNA law. The law says officers can re-examine unsolved rape cases with DNA evidence, even if the statute of limitations has expired. <br><br>Tulsa's

Thursday, September 5th 2002, 12:00 am

By: News On 6

Tulsa Police make quick work of the state's new DNA law. The law says officers can re-examine unsolved rape cases with DNA evidence, even if the statute of limitations has expired.

Tulsa's sex crimes unit already found one such case and prosecutors plan to file charges. DNA set Arvin McGee free after serving 14 years in prison for a rape he did not commit.

Detectives entered DNA of the suspect into a new DNA database and got a match, the man happens to be in prison already on other charges. Officers wouldn't have been able to take this case to court previously, because the statute of limitations had expired. But, thanks to a new law that went into effect September 1st, they can and are doing exactly that.

Sgt Gary Stansill, Sex Crimes: "Now, we have a new law and new technology that puts life in those old cases." District Attorney Tim Harris plans to file charges in this case.

Tulsa's sex crimes unit recently received a grant to pay for a private lab to test DNA samples in 50 unsolved, stranger rapes. So, detectives are searching their old files for cases that might turn up a match in the DNA database.

News on Six crime reporter Lori Fullbright found a rape victim whose case might be a perfect fit. "Michelle", a mother of two, went to her south Tulsa apartment after working a double shift and fell asleep, she woke up when someone threw a pillow over her head and shoved a forearm in her neck. "He sat me up on the bed and there was a crowbar on the floor. He said, if you look at me, I'm going to hit you with it. So, I didn't look at him."

The man was never caught and the statute of limitations expired two years ago. But, because there was DNA evidence, there's now a chance for police to find him. "I think it's really incredible. I think DNA is incredible. It allows them to catch the real people and not put innocent people in jail." It wouldn't have done police any good to run DNA tests on the semen at the time of Michelle's attack, because there was no one to compare the sample to.

But, now, police can enter it into a new national DNA database and look for a match. The database is called CODIS, Combined DNA Identification System. Oklahoma became a part of it in August.

Erin Michael of Call RAPE: "It's important because it's a blueprint of that person that singles them out from everyone else in the country." So, just whose DNA is in this database? In Oklahoma, since 1996, it's been people convicted for about 40 different crimes like assault, burglary, robbery, rape, murder and manslaughter. Right now, there are 15,500 people in the database and it grows every day.

And, with it, grows the chance that people like Michelle will finally get the justice they've been hoping for. Tulsa's grant to work on 50 unsolved rape cases is part of a larger, statewide grant from the Department of Justice to solve 500 cases statewide.

The $300,000 grant will pay a private lab to do the DNA tests, which would otherwise create a backlog at the OSBI lab. Oklahoma has submitted 202 DNA samples to the national database, two matches were found.