MADISON - Attorney General Josh Kaul and a bipartisan group of lawmakers introduced legislation Monday that aims to put in state law a process to collect and test evidence from sexual assaults.

The proposal answers a key issue debated during the 2018 race for attorney general, during which Kaul defeated his predecessor Brad Schimel in part by hammering him over the state Department of Justice's response to thousands of evidence kits going untested for years.

"Under current Wisconsin law, there's no comprehensive statutory framework for the collection and processing of sexual assault kits — this legislation will change that," Kaul told reporters at the state Capitol Tuesday.

Gov. Tony Evers has promised to sign the legislation if it reaches his desk, his spokeswoman said Tuesday.

Under the proposal, nurses and doctors must notify police within 24 hours of collecting evidence of a sexual assault from a victim who wants to notify law enforcement.

If the victim does not want to notify police about the assault, the evidence — known as kits — must be sent to the state's crime laboratory within 72 hours of collection for storage for up to 10 years in case the victim changes his or her mind about reaching out to police.

If the victim agrees to have evidence analyzed, a state crime laboratory must analyze the evidence kit and send it to law enforcement, which must keep it for 50 years or until the statute of limitations runs out, or until the end of the prison term or probation of the person convicted — whichever is longer.

The proposed mandatory timeline comes about four years after state DOJ officials used a $4 million grant to begin a process of identifying every evidence kit that had not been tested — nearly 7,000 in all — and determining which evidence to test.

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Testing began in 2016 and by the fall of 2018, Schimel said all evidence — 4,100 kits — had been tested.

He started testing in 2016 and announced last September that the DOJ had finished testing about 4,100 kits.

According to new data released by the state DOJ on Thursday, testing found DNA evidence in 1,605 kits. Six people have been charged so far.

The evidence had gone untested for years — in some cases decades — because local law enforcement or medical officials did not notify DOJ about the existence of some of the evidence.

Democrats ahead of the 2018 race blasted Schimel on the pace of the testing. After Schimel secured $7 million in grant funding to identify and test evidence related to unsolved cases, it took three years to test fewer than half of the cases.

Schimel proposed a similar 72-hour requirement just before his defeat in a November election.

Before his defeat, Schimel said he was able to significantly increase the speed of testing by enlisting the help of three different labs, including one that was able to take on additional kits once it finished some from other states.

"We all saw the stories in the press for the last year or so — quite confusing," bill co-author Sen. Rob Cowles, R-Green Bay, said. "We all believe that this will clear up that confusion to a large extent and provide better safety."

Ian Henderson, director of systems and policy at the Wisconsin Coalition Against Sexual Assault, has worked with the state DOJ since the process to test the kits began in 2015.

He said Tuesday the proposed process to identify and test evidence related to sexual assaults protect's a victim's right to decide whether they want to seek prosecution.

Henderson said victims may not wish to report their assaults out of fear of not being believed, or over privacy concerns.

"This legislation is absolutely critical to ensure Wisconsin does not experience a backlog of sexual assault kits in the future," he said. "This legislation keeps the decision to engage with law enforcement with the survivor."

It's unclear whether Republican leaders of the state Legislature will advance the bill, but Senate Majority Leader Scott Fitzgerald on Tuesday signaled support, calling the bill "a good start" toward ensuring a backlog of evidence doesn't build again.

Kit Beyer, a spokeswoman for Assembly Speaker Robin Vos, said the effort began under Schimel and that Vos "looks forward to learning more from them on their efforts with the Department of Justice" but didn't say whether Vos would support advancing the bill.

Kaul said the proposal is not dependent on funding included for DOJ in Evers' proposed two-year budget, which Republican lawmakers plan to significantly rewrite.

Contact Molly Beck in the Capitol bureau at (608) 258-2263 or at molly.beck@jrn.com. Follow her on Twitter at @MollyBeck.