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International columnist, political analyst and senior journalist Ahmed Mohiuddin Siddiqui’s articles are published across Asia, Africa and Europe. He writes for The Moroccan Times, The Tunis Times, India Tomorrow, Kohram News, The Etemaad Urdu Daily and for news papers published from Muscat, Sultanate of Oman. You can follow him on Twitter at: @journopolana[/symple_box]
The infamous Lena Bruce rape and murder case seems to have been finally cracked by the Boston police after 23 long years. A Suffolk County grand jury on 1st October 2015 indicted James Witkowski, 42, for the 1992 murder of Lena Bruce (E ’92). The then 21-year old Bruce was found dead in her South End apartment about two months after graduating from the university. The case went unsolved for more than two decades till the miraculous DNA evidence linked Witkowski to the homicide.
It may be recalled that Bruce grew up in Philadelphia before moving to Boston to study at the American TuftsUniversity. She was the only African-American girl in her class to graduate with a degree in electrical engineering. In July 1992, Bruce was found by her roommate bound, gagged and partially undressed. Bruce was working at a Boston engineering company at that time.
“My thing is, a bright light has gone out,” Bruce’s mother, UnaVee Bruce said, according to a July 15, 1992 article from The Philadelphia Inquirer. “It’s senseless. But she left a mark.”
All of the evidence from the crime scene — sperm samples and fingernail scrapings – were stored in the Boston Police Crime Laboratory, according to Jake Wark, press secretary for the Suffolk County District Attorney’s Office. Wark explained that when investigators first got hold of the DNA evidence, there was little they could do to link it to the culprit Witkowski.
In 1992, investigators didn’t have any faint idea of the evidentiary power of DNA evidence. “But what they did know is that, in some cases, a certain percentage of the male population’s blood type is identifiable through a sperm sample. So, it conceivably could have helped to identify a person, although not nearly as distinctively as DNA evidence does in the present times.”
The next development unfolded in the case in 1998, when new advances in forensic technology allowed the Boston Police Crime Laboratory to develop a DNA database. They could store and record DNA profiles, including the profile for DNA found in Bruce’s homicide case. The new database was uploaded to the Federal Bureau of Investigation‘s DNA database, the Combined DNA Index System (CODIS), a year later when Massachusetts joined the system.
The CODIS has only grown larger over the past decade or two decades. It allows the comparison of known offenders to the DNA profiles from unsolved crimes. “And that system is constantly updating, constantly checking for new submissions in the database, and despite the uploading of that DNA profile –from Bruce’s case, there were no hits or clues.”
These new advancements in 1998 brought the Boston police one important step closer to solving Bruce’s murder case. But, many years were still ahead of the prosecutors before the suspect was identified and nailed. Periodically, Boston Police homicide detectives and Suffolk County prosecutors would try some new technique. They made appeals to the public, but in each case, unfortunately, they were not able to develop a potential subject to solve the case.
The moment of the truth arrived during the summer of 2014. Witkowski, who was 19 at the time of the murder, was arrested for a probation violation for a 2013 assault and battery conviction and was sentenced to 18 months at the Suffolk County House of Corrections. As a matter of routine, the State police collected a sample of of DNA from Witkowski during that time.
In Massachusetts, a criminal convicted of a felony must supply a DNA sample to the database. There’s not really an enforcement element of that law. However, if a person gets probation and walks out of court, there’s a chance that they may not actually give that sample. So, teams of state police visit the various prisons from time to time, house of corrections, jails and other detention facilities throughout Massachusetts. They essentially look for anybody who hasn’t given a DNA sample as ordered to. In January 2015, Boston Police were relieved to be informed that Witkowski’s DNA matched the CODIS profile from the DNA evidence found at the crime scene in Bruce’s apartment!
This followed a “blizzard of activity”, which included re-interviews with each initial witness, a comprehensive investigation into Witkowski’s history, in-person interviews with Witkowski and the drawing of another confirmatory DNA sample. Apart from the revelation that Witkowski’s DNA matched that found at the crime scene, interviews with Witkowski also provided ample evidence that he was involved.
In his interviews, Witkowski pretended that he didn’t know Lena Bruce, had never met her, had never had sexual relations with her. Then he was confronted with the fact that the police had DNA evidence. He realized that his game was up. Then Witkowski made statements like he had been drinking in those days, was subject to blackouts, he had sex with a lot of women, it was possible that he did it and just didn’t remember.
Finally, Witkowski was indicted for first-degree murder by a grand jury on 1st October 2015. It’s usually at least a year and more often about two years, before a murder case will go to trial. It is partly due to the constitutional protections that are afforded to every defendant. The court will decide if the DNA evidence will suffice to pronounce James Witkowski guilty of rape and murder.
Although the murder happened more than two decades ago, it’s still an emotional case for Bruce’s loved ones. Her parents are no more. The indiction in Bruce’s case gives a ray of hope to the thousands of people awaiting justice in similar unsolved cases.
Meanwhile, the American Congress plans to “rescind and permanently cancel” $1.5 billion from the Crime Victims Fund (CVF), threatening the sustainability of programs that assist victims. The CVF was established by the Victims of Crime Act of 1984 (VOCA). The CVF includes money from fines and penalties collected from criminal and civil cases. By statute, these funds are intended to be used only to help victims and to support criminal justice activities. This fiscal year, the fund will distribute more than $2 billion to state and local victim service organizations. These funds also help reimburse victims for crime-related expenses, such as medical costs.
To help balance the budget, the Bipartisan Budget Act of 2015 reduces the amount of money in the fund at a time when more survivors are coming forward for support. Every two minutes, an American is sexually assaulted, according to the Justice Department. According to a recent survey, more than one-third of rape crisis centers have a waiting list for services.
The solving of Lena Bruce case by the persistent efforts of the Boston police is a source of inspiration to policemen-women around the world, not to give up but work patiently and tirelessly to bring the murderers to book and provide a sense of closure to the families of the victims by way of justice. The lawyers, jurists, forensic experts and journalists need to pool in their efforts to bring the truth out. Justice has to be seen to be done!
The developing countries like India have hundreds of unsolved rape and murder cases. The DNA technology comes as a blessing in disguise to solve even the old and closed cases.
The Indian capital New Delhi has become synonymous as the rape capital of India. The Nirbhaya rape cum murder case drew attention of the world and even inspired a British film maker to make the film – India’s Daughter, which was banned in India.
It is very difficult even to lodge a police complaint by surviving victims and if the process is completed through a trial, the conviction rate is appalling. More women police officers and judges may help in easing the agony of the victims in the hope of getting justice. All unsolved old rape and murder cases need to be opened again and probed with the DNA angle. The humiliating two-finger vaginal test for rape victims can be done away with, in many countries. The DNA evidence is convincingly enough to tighten the noose around rapist-murderers. One can lie to anybody but not to the DNA!
