Florida

‘Gail's Law' Would Create Database to Track Rape Kits

The bill passed in the Florida House and goes before the Senate soon

NBC Universal, Inc.

Gail Gardner was raped in 1988 by a stranger inside her own home. She reported the crime.

She went to the hospital and a rape examination was conducted.

Then she waited.

Her rape kit sat untested for three decades.

”I spent 32 years in fear,” she said.

In 2020, her case was concluded. The man who violated her, she learned, was a serial rapist. He had been in jail for most of the time she lived afraid. She doesn’t want other rape survivors to live that way.

That’s why she’s hoping “Gail's Law” will become law. It would require the Florida Department of Law Enforcement to create and maintain a statewide database for sexual assault evidence kits.

House Bill 673 was passed by the Florida legislature on Monday. State representative Emily Solberg sponsored the bill.

The bill will go before the Senate in a few weeks.

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