When it comes to seeking justice, there's a big delay in the Mountain State
The only full service forensic lab in the state is at West
Virginia State Police headquarters in South
Charleston
Currently, there are 2,817 cases backlogged. Some of them go all
the way back to 2011. Eight hundred of those cases have popped up just in the
past few months.
Victims of violent crimes like rape must wait for DNA results
before an arrest can be made. That can take more than a year.
Meanwhile, jails are overcrowded with inmates just waiting for
their day in court while evidence waits to be processed.
To try to fix this problem, a bill has been presented to the
Legislature asking for employee pay raises at the lab.
It would cost nearly $600,000, which supporters say is minor
compared to the millions being spent to keep inmates in jail, as well as
training costs for analysts who leave the state after just a few years.
