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Florida state attorney awarded $2.3 million in grants to fight sexual assault

The Florida state attorney’s office was awarded $2.3 million in grants to help fight sexual assault.

The grants come from the Department of Justice’s Office of Justice Programs for the National Sexual Assault Kit Initiative, also known as SAKI.

“With this critical funding, we will continue to seek justice for victims of sexual assaults," said state attorney Melissa Nelson.

The SAO will use a $1.5 million grant to continue investigating and prosecuting sexual assault cases.

In addition, the office will use a grant worth $880,933 to expand DNA databases through the collection of lawfully owed DNA from convicted offenders and arrestees.

The SAO and investigators said it could lead to more arrests and prosecutions of violent offenders.

In 2015, Action News Jax reported on a backlog of untested sexual assault kits. The SAO said that number is now at zero.

In total, more than 1,700 kits have been submitted for testing, with the final batch submitted in spring 2017.

Those kits have resulted in more than 370 DNA "hits" to date and led to additional investigations.

In the past year, tested kits have resulted in two successful prosecutions.