This bill changes the law with regard to sexual assault evidence collection kits analyzed by the Tennessee bureau of investigation (TBI) as described below.
Present law requires the following:
(1) The TBI to develop uniform procedures for the collection and preservation of human biological specimens for DNA analysis in cases of alleged or suspected commissions of aggravated rape, rape, aggravated sexual battery, sexual battery, rape of a child, or incest;
(2) Law enforcement agencies, and medical personnel who conduct evidentiary examinations, to use the uniform procedures in their investigation of those offenses;
(3) The TBI to adopt uniform procedures to maintain, preserve, and analyze human biological specimens for DNA and to establish a centralized system to cross-reference data obtained from DNA analysis;
(4) The centralized system to contain certain convicted felon profiles, forensic unknown profiles, criminal suspect profiles, violent juvenile sexual offender profiles, and missing person profiles; and
(5) The TBI to perform DNA analysis and make data obtained available to law enforcement officials in connection with appropriate criminal investigations in which human biological specimens have been recovered and to the district attorney general.
For a sexual assault evidence collection kit received by the TBI on or after July 1, 2023, this bill requires the TBI to perform serology or DNA analysis on the kit within 30 days of the bureau's receipt of the kit from a law enforcement agency. If the TBI is unable to perform the analysis within the 30-day period, then this bill requires the TBI to flag the kit in the electronic tracking system and provide the submitting law enforcement agency with a written explanation for the delay in analysis. The TBI is then required under this bill to complete the analysis within a reasonable time thereafter.
This bill provides that the TBI's inability to perform the analysis within the 30-day period does not limit the admissibility of evidence obtained from the kit and is not a ground for challenging the validity of any analysis performed by the TBI of evidence obtained from the kit.
ON MARCH 20, 2023, THE SENATE ADOPTED AMENDMENT #2 AND PASSED SENATE BILL 14, AS AMENDED.
AMENDMENT #2 changes the effective date of this bill to upon becoming a law, and removes the provisions relative to sexual assault evidence collection kits, including the provision requiring the TBI to perform serology or DNA analysis on the kit within 30 days of the bureau's receipt of the kit from a law enforcement agency, and rewrites this bill to, instead, require the bureau to do the following:
(1) Until January 1, 2025, provide quarterly updates on the bureau's efforts to hire and train employees within the forensic services division and the average amount of time taken to perform forensic analysis on evidence in cases involving sexual offenses to the judiciary committee of the senate and the criminal justice committee of the house of representatives; and
(2) By January 1, 2025, submit a report to the judiciary and finance, ways and means committees of the senate and the criminal justice and finance, ways, and means committees of the house of representatives detailing any additional resources and personnel that would be required in order to perform forensic analysis on evidence in cases involving sexual offenses within 60 days of the bureau's receipt of the evidence from a law enforcement agency.

Statutes affected:
Introduced: 38-6-113