Lawmakers in Annapolis want to tweak legislation on the books dealing with rape and sexual assaults. Three bills are set to be considered this week.
"It was a very hard experience for me," said Ebony Johnson.
The 28-year-old is a survivor. She says she has thick scars emotionally and mentally from being sexually assaulted two times by two different men.
"I don't want anybody else to go through what I’ve gone through, I really don't," Johnson said.
That was her motivation to start the #NotOneMore campaign, and starting this petition. Her goal is to drum up support for three bills that would modernize Maryland’s rape laws.
One would change the legal definition of rape, another would allow prosecutors in certain circumstances to introduce evidence in court that a defendant committed past sexual assaults, and the third sets standards for how long police departments must hold onto rape kits.
"Maryland's law is still archaic," said State Senator Delores Kelley.
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ABC2 News spoke with Kelley last month about her push to clarify a key point in the state's rape statute. Right now, to be charged with the crime, in addition to lack of consent, victims have to resist their attackers and show they fought back.
"One of the few states that insists in order for a prosecutor to get a conviction on a rape charge, the person must have been subjected to force and must have resisted, and that's just insane,” Kelley said.
Prosecutors and advocates for sexual assault victims say the state is behind the times, and the wording of the law often makes it hard to get convictions.
"It's just completely backwards from what we're telling young people today, we tell people you have to get consent, if it's not consent it's rape, and then the law doesn’t back that up," said Lisae Jordan with the Maryland Coalition Against Sexual Assault last month.
The Maryland Attorney General's office reported there are more than 3,700 untested rape evidence kits sitting at police departments across the state. urns out, each agency has its own policy for when to test rape kits, when to notify victims, and how long to store the evidence.
"It's always better when there is a uniform policy across the state that can be looked to so a victim knows exactly what's going to happen," Carrie Williams from the Maryland Office of the Attorney General said.
RELATED: New data shows thousands of rape kits in Maryland have not been tested
Legislation would set statewide guidelines, requiring police departments to keep rape kits for 20-years, as well as notify victims about the storage and testing of kits.
The House versions of all three of these bills are set for hearings Tuesday afternoon.
Ebony plans to take her message to Annapolis at 10 a.m. Tuesday to rally for support.
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