ILLINOIS (WCIA) — Tuesday, Illinois State Police (ISP) Director Brendan Kelly, along with Division of Forensic Services’ Deputy Director Col. Sean Cormier and Assistant Deputy Director Robin Woolery appeared before the Illinois Senate’s Public Health Committee to discuss the DNA backlog.

Director Kelly provided extensive testimony defending ISP’s forsenic laboratory system including the inevitable backlog generated with continued criminal acts and the advancement of technology to develop more detailed and reliable information.

ISP Director Brendan Kelly’s Senate testimony*Download

Kelly made a point to include references to increased numbers of qualified staff available because of a positive state budget counteracting previous cuts. He stated completion rates of biology/DNA assignments finally outpaced the incoming evidence with the backlog decreasing 16% since last year.

Regarding 70 unsolved Chicago homicide cases with DNA evidence at the lab discussed in a previous committee meeting, Assistant Deputy Director Woolery stated testing on all but two cases has been completed and the two outstanding cases were awaiting court action.

*The download of Director Kelly’s testimony has been updated to correct/update information in the last paragraph of the press release.