Contact: Ashley Viste, Campaign Manager

[email protected], 920-204-5953

Josh Kaul, candidate for Attorney General, comments on the news of another backlog

MADISON – Yesterday, USA Today Network-Wisconsin reported that, from July 2015 to July 2017, there was a sevenfold increase in the number of DNA cases waiting for more than two months to be tested.[1]

Asked about this backlog, the spokesperson for the Wisconsin Department of Justice said, “The definition of ‘backlog’ is subjective.”[2]

It was previously reported that Wisconsin still has a backlog of thousands of untested rape kits and that, in Brad Schimel’s first two years in office, only nine of those kits were tested.

In May 2017, PolitiFact assessed Schimel’s claim that there’s no backlog of untested rape kits in Wisconsin and found that the claim “was not only wrong but ridiculous” because Schimel himself had previously used the term.[3]

In response to yesterday’s report, former federal prosecutor Josh Kaul, who is running against Schimel, said: “If there’s one thing we need our AG to do, it’s making sure that we’re able to identify dangerous criminals and take them off the street. That’s the job. And making sure that DNA evidence is tested expeditiously is fundamental to the job.”

Kaul added, “Instead of someone who plays semantic games and wastes our tax dollars on fake coins and fortune cookies, we need an AG who’s focused on protecting Wisconsin families.”

Kaul served as a federal prosecutor in Baltimore, one of America’s most violent cities. There, he prosecuted murderers, gang members, and drug traffickers, taking dangerous criminals off the street and making communities more secure. He grew up in Oshkosh and Fond du Lac in a family of law enforcement professionals and teachers.

For more information on Josh Kaul, please visit www.joshkaul.org

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[1] See http://www.postcrescent.com/story/news/investigations/2017/09/05/delays-rise-dna-tests-state-crime-labs/625152001/.

[2] See https://twitter.com/keegankyle/status/905113276350160896.

[3] See http://www.politifact.com/wisconsin/statements/2017/may/19/brad-schimel/brad-schimel-falsely-claims-there-no-backlog-untes/.

 

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