To the editor,

A woman brave enough to report her rape must then endure the examination necessary to document the damage done to her body and to gather evidence that may identify her attacker. Completing a rape kit can take hours and, unless conducted with tremendous care and concern, can seem like yet another set of violations. But how else to ensure that the person who caused this damage will be found, stopped, and punished?

When in 2013 a task force in Cleveland processed a backlog of rape kits, prosecutors were surprised to find that the DNA collected from at least 25% of "acquaintance" rapes was also found in "stranger" rapes. Rapists will rape when given the opportunity. They need to be caught to be stopped.

Brad Schimel has given rapists the opportunity to not only get away with their crimes but to rape again. Leaving a backlog of 6,000 rape kits untested, as he did, is tantamount to saying he doesn’t much care about women, punishing crimes against them, or preventing future crimes. 

That’s not a good characteristic in a supreme court judge. We can do much better by electing Susan Crawford this April. She’s fair, exacting, and cares about justice.

Maureen Ash

Town of River Falls