KIYC investigation leads to legislation requiring law enforcement to test all rape kits that survivors want tested

A Kane In Your Corner investigation has now led to permanent change for survivors of sexual assault.

Moments before leaving office, outgoing Gov. Phil Murphy signed a law requiring law enforcement to test all rape kits that survivors want tested.

The law was the result of a three-year News 12 investigation, “Victims of the System,” which found that even when survivors wanted their rape kits tested, it was not happening a third of the time. New Jersey was one of only a handful of states that allowed prosecutors to refuse to test kits that survivors wanted tested. Survivors of sexual assault said their untested kits made them feel like law enforcement had taken their assaults seriously.

But now, that should never happen again.

“I feel wonderful,” says Lena Morrison, one of the survivors interviewed by Kane In Your Corner.

Morrison says she was raped inside a dorm room at Ramapo University. Prosecutors had declined to pursue the case, and because of that, her rape kit was never tested.

Morrison is now hopeful no future survivor will have to endure what she did.

“This is exactly what I wanted since the beginning,” Morrison says. “I just wanted something good come out of this experience and just to know that for future victims, hopefully this is going to make a difference.”