MR. ASPLEN: After the first Commission meeting and we received the Attorney General's charge to move as quickly as we could, as quickly as we could to give recommendations to the Attorney General rather than wait two years in the life of the Commission to give those recommendations, after that meeting we started talking around the Commission staff about what things we could do and what were matters of greatest urgency.

And the database issue came up and the backlog of database issue came up. And there's a reason this meeting is structured the way it is today, that we provided kind of a vision of the potential database system.

And we are going to hear Paul's report on where we are at right now in the United States.

But I called Paul and I asked him if he would be willing to accept the challenge, if you will, to bring his people together quickly and talk about this backlog issue because it is of such great importance.

And he agreed to do that graciously and asked that the other members of his working group get together, put their heads together, and come up with the recommendation.

But in the course of our talking about it and we were just kind of talking amongst ourselves about the value of this and the preventative potential of it and how important it was.

And I said, you know, there are people out there who are being victimized that don't need to be victimized and he said, yeah, I know of some. And we started talking about the human aspect of it.

And we deal with this issue as Commissioners on an intellectual and on a professional level, and we look at the statistics. And unfortunately we do and we deal with them.

But I thought it was important to take some time today to view the real reason that we all are sitting around this table and that is because of the human aspect of it.

The real maximization of this technology means quite literally the saving of lives, human lives, in a way that we have never had the power to do before.

And Paul said when we talked about perhaps someone coming in and giving that perspective, Paul said, well, I do know someone who may be able to do that. And I asked Paul if he would contact the prosecutor and if I could get permission to call that person.

And that person is Debbie Smith, and Debbie Smith is here today to tell you what happened to her but I think more the value of the database system from the perspective of the victim.

I think just as importantly though, Debbie is not here alone. She is here with her husband, Robert. They are a team in this.

And my impression from the first time I spoke to both of them on the phone is that they have gotten through this ordeal as a team, working together, and as such, they appear before you today.

Needless to say, this is a matter of great courage and from the first time I spoke to Debbie about the possibility of coming and speaking to this group and explaining this is an open meeting, that this is a meeting of which the transcripts of which will go on the Internet word-for-word.

And her response was I have been looking for an opportunity for other people to benefit from what happened to me so it doesn't happen to them.

Again a tremendous amount of courage goes into her being here today, and I just want to thank you for that and for what you can do for this Commission.

MRS. SMITH: Again I'll pretty much read what I have here. If I don't, I probably won't get through this.

So first of all, I would like to express my appreciation for this invitation to this very important meeting and to those of you on the Commission for being willing to listen to my story, the story of an average, everyday housewife turned victim.

This room is filled with doctors and lawyers, scientists, judges, high-ranking political figures and law enforcement figures, and I feel somewhat displaced and very much overwhelmed.

But even with my lack of notoriety, each and every one of you knows who I am because I'm someone else. I'm the person that you read about in the newspaper. I'm the one that you hear about on the news and consciously or unconsciously say it's just somebody else and it will never happen to me.

And you'd be right because it always does happen to somebody else. But today or tomorrow, you or someone that you love could be someone else.

We all have a misconception that it just can't happen to me. I was probably in what could be considered one of the most -- one of the safest possible environments. It was in the middle of the day and I was in my home. It was around 1:00 p.m. I was in my home in a nice neighborhood in the City of Williamsburg which happens to be one of the safest towns in America.

My husband who is a police lieutenant was upstairs asleep after having been up over 24 hours. He worked the night shift and then had court that morning. So how can I be any safer?

But on May 3rd, 1989, Deborah Smith became someone else. And my life and the lives of my friends, my loved ones was changed forever.

It was a typical day in the life of any wife and mother. There was a light rain falling outside. I was in the middle of cleaning house, doing laundry. I was baking a cake for dinner with friends that evening.

My clothes dryer all of a sudden didn't seem to be working properly so I went outside to check the vent.

When I returned from checking the dryer vent, I decided to leave the back door unlocked, a door that's always locked, always. But I knew that I was going to return right away with the trash.

So I left that door unlocked. After all, I thought what could happen in just a few minutes, time for me to go in, gather the trash and come back out.

But before I could return, within moments, a stranger entered that open door and nearly destroyed and definitely changed my life forever.

This masked stranger forced me, forcibly took me out of my home to a wooded area. He blindfolded me, robbed me and repeatedly raped me.

This crime took less than one hour, has deprived me of the innocent outlook on life and my freedom. The sound of his voice rang through my ears as a deafening clamor, "Remember, I know where you live and I will come back if you tell anyone." But I did tell someone.

As soon as I was allowed to return home, I ran upstairs to where my husband was asleep and he woke up to the words, "He got me, Rob. He got me."

I begged him not to call the police, and I begged him not to tell anyone because I feared this man would return and that he would kill me.

But my husband, the police officer in my husband, knew that we couldn't let this go unreported. And he also convinced me of the importance of going to that hospital. But all I wanted to do was take a shower. I wanted to try to wash it away.

The hospital visit proved almost as violating as the actual crime. I was questioned. I was probed. I was plucked and scraped and swabbed, but I thank God every day for my husband's insistence of that trip to the hospital, for it sprung the results of the evidence gathered there that put this rapist behind bars forever.

For the first time in my life, I couldn't find any reason for wanting to live. The love of my family and my friends just didn't seem to be enough. Even my faith in God seemed to be failing me.

There was no escaping the pain, no escaping the fear. It was always there. It was there in my waking hours as well as in my dreams.

On many occasions since my rape, I awakened my husband in the middle of the night with the sound of blood curdling screams and the nightmares. I knew at that point that I could not and I would not live this way and it seemed my only alternative was death.

Death seemed to me the only answer that would end this nightmare for me but it would have to be short and final. I decided a gun would be my answer, over and over again I planted in my head.

But there was always one problem that I just couldn't find a solution to. And that was my husband and my two children.

I just kept thinking about what this would do to them. And I couldn't bear the thought of the fact that they would have to endure the same kind of pain that I was feeling. So I finally grabbed onto that one little thread and it became my reason to live.

One of the most frequent comments that I heard right after this incident was at least you're alive, but I'm sitting here telling you today that I was alive physically, but I had died inside. And I had actually wished and cursed my attacker for not taking my life and relieving me of this pain.

This intruder never laid a physical hand on anyone else in my family besides me. But when he left, he left each and every one of us a victim.

He touched emotions within us that we never felt before. Suddenly there was rage in the eyes of my son. My daughter was afraid to go from the porch to the driveway after dark.

And each of us, especially my husband, felt the awful pain of guilt. He felt as if he could protect the whole city but yet he was unable to protect his own wife in our own home.

My son was remorseful because the attacker had used the baseball bat that he had neglected to put away. I felt responsible because I had left the door unlocked for those brief but life changing moments.

Our home which had always been filled with love and laughter had now become a house of anger and fear and guilt.

But my family and I weren't the only victims that day. Every person that touched my life or my family's life was to feel the effect of this crime. They no longer felt safe and they too felt invaded.

I could see the pain in their eyes because I was a constant reminder that it can happen to anyone. They would guard their words so that they wouldn't say or do anything to upset me. They were angry for me and yet they felt helpless because there was nothing that they could do.

I often found myself comforting them. We all wanted to understand and yet there seemed to be no understanding.

I waited daily to hear news that they had found this man that had changed our lives, but it seemed like the news would never come. Those days turned into weeks. The weeks turned into months and the months turned into years.

I lived in constant fear of his return, hearing his words over and over again in my head: I know where you live and I will come back and I'll kill you.

The Williamsburg Police Department followed up every lead and every clue they had, and they always seemed to come up empty-handed.

Even my mind began to make me doubt myself. I kept thinking did it really happen or was this all some horrible, horrible nightmare; do they believe me or are they also doubting my words as I was doubting myself.

But in my heart, I knew that it wasn't some nightmare that was going to fade away with time but that was going to be with me forever.

I began to understand that the quality of life that I had once enjoyed would never be restored.

I craved peace of mind and did everything I could think of to attain that. An alarm system was installed in our home including panic buttons throughout the house as well as one I could wear around my neck. The privacy fence was put around our backyard and motion detectors were installed.

At one point, I even took to carrying a gun. But I did away with that because when you go after your checkbook and you have to move a .38 out of the way, the clerks tend to get a little nervous. So I quit carrying that with me.

But my biggest fear was that because I had become so paranoid and so fearful for my life, I was afraid I'd hurt some innocent person if they got too close or if they came up from behind me.

There just didn't seem to be any way to attain this peace and rest that my mind and my body craved for so long.

I began to wonder how I was ever going to be able to really live again. I would suffer daily with the memory of a man who was in my life for such a short span of time and he may never have to pay for this crime, but I was going to have to pay for it forever.

I can tell you that it is only by the grace of God that I am here today. For six and a half years, I simply existed trying to go on and live life as normal.

But there was never any true peace until July 26, 1995, when my husband walked into our living room and he handed me a composite that he had carried with him ever since the incident. And he told me I could throw it away because we weren't going to need it anymore.

A forensic scientist for the State of Virginia had discovered a match with the DNA databank. He was in jail and he was serving time for abduction and robbery. He couldn't come after me anymore. He was no longer a threat.

For the first time in six and a half years, I could feel myself breathe. I felt validated. It was a real name and a real face to go with the nightmare.

Everyone would know that I was telling the truth, that it was real. Finally I could quit looking over my shoulder. No longer did I have to drive around in circles hoping a neighbor would drive by so I could get the courage to get out of my car to go to my own front door if there was no one else home.

Unfamiliar noises no longer left me panic-stricken. I no longer scanned faces in a crowd to see if he was following me. Suicide was no longer a consideration.

And my husband is grateful that I don't wake him up anymore in the middle of the night with the ear-piercing screams. Within myself, the healing had begun and peace had come at last.

I later found out that this attacker had been put in jail only months after he tore my life apart.

I lost six years of my life to fear because of the backlog of DNA samples. And this is the reason that I'm here today.

I'm not here for myself because DNA has already done for me what it has been set up to do. And I wouldn't be here for myself today because it's much too painful.

And this is -- to sit here before you is not something that I'm very used to doing. But I'm here for all of the victims who are still waiting for that news, that a match has been found.

And I feel that I would be remiss if I did not do everything I could to help them get their answers as soon as possible.

Every day that they have to wait is another day that's been stolen from their lives. I want you to understand that I'm not saying in any way that DNA is a cure-all for victims because the healing process for each victim is unique to that person.

But the healing process begins at the solving of these cases, and DNA, I believe, is the greatest means to that end.

There are very few times in our lives when we can truly help those who are hurting. We often say let me know if I can help you in any way.

Today we have a technology to ease their pain and help them to begin their healing process much sooner. It's my understanding that we can cut a six-year backlog down to two years. This four-year difference may not seem like a lot of time in the span of a lifetime.

To my heart that's ridden with fear, it's an eternity. And to some it may seem unbearable. They may not have that thread of hope that I was able to grab onto, the love and support of my family and friends. The thoughts and plans of suicide may for them become a reality.

But we have within our grasp the opportunity to give them the peace that they crave and they need and to protect those that may be future victims by convicting the guilty or keeping the convicted already in jail.

What a priceless gift this is. This Commission is concerned with the future of DNA evidence while the only hope of some people lies within the DNA evidence.

As a victim who has experienced both the before and aftereffects of the hideous crime, I implore you as a Commission to do all that you can as soon as you can.

And if I have said anything that would help to convince you of this, then the six years of torment that I suffered will (inaudible). Thank you.

CHRISTOPHER ASPLEN: Debbie, it's fair to say that with thanks to you, the point could not have been made any more clearly than the way you made it.

Again it was with a tremendous amount of courage that you come to us and it is with a tremendous amount of respect that we will treat what you have given us and do all that we can to do what you have asked us to do, and that is to keep this from happening to others and to give people that peace of mind so we thank you.

Why don't we take about a ten-minute recess?

(A break was taken.)

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