TBA Law Blog


Posted by: Stacey Shrader Joslin on Oct 2, 2023

On the heels of a high-profile criminal case last year, Tennessee politicians vowed to push resources toward the state's evidence testing labs that were taking more than 34 weeks, on average, to process sex offense evidence. That effort appears to be paying off, the Tennessean reports. New data shows that in the Jackson lab, the average turnaround time for forensic sex offence evidence was 17.8 weeks over the past year, a significant improvement over the 41.9 weeks reported between August 2021 and August 2022. Testing times also improved In the Nashville and Knoxville labs. Efforts over the past year included outsourcing the testing of 500 rape kits and bolstering forensic scientists, lab technicians and administrative support personnel at state labs.