So, Andy, How is it today that people who commit murders and rape women and their child sex offenders get arrested, police doing great work, they arrest them and they're back on the street? What's happened?

You had a philosophical change and basically the change happened probably roughly around 2018 and we started noticing this trend when I started looking at individuals that were charged with murder in Harris County.

And I started noticing something very disturbing.

A lot of them were out on more than one felony bond, or they were out on what's called a PR, personal recognizance, better known in street terms as a get out of jail free card.

And I started documenting these cases.

And we eventually got up to over 200 of our citizens that I say, you know, this was tragic.

But it was so utterly preventable.

Yes, and that's where I want to go

Who's to say some crazy judge doesn't go along with it, and he walks? No one is to say that.

We've seen this time and time again, and I tell victims' families, "Look, here's reality.

Life without parole today doesn't necessarily mean it's gonna be life without parole 10, 20 years from now." And we've seen this repeated over and over again.

The other thing that we are now seeing right now is so-called elderly mercy, mercy release, and particularly in the state of New York, where they're looking at everyone from the ages of 55 and over for potential parole, including a serial killer by the name of David Berkowitz.

So again, it sounds good on the premise.

Life without parole, you're never gonna breathe free air again.

That's it.

He wasn't consulted.

Hit it, Andy.

You know, the video speaks volumes.

I mean, that's, there's no if, ands, or buts.

He knew exactly what he was doing, and he tried to cover up.

But the real story to me is you had a young lady who fled war-torn, war-torn Ukraine only to end up being murdered in the United States.

Now we look at what happened with the defendant.

This defendant's got a rap sheet yay long, 14 arrests.

What about it, Andy Kahan?

What is your vision of how this will work practically speaking? I mean, how do you identify the cases that need funding to get DNA results?

You know, once we get this out to the public, I think we're gonna get a lot of hits.

People are gonna be reaching out to us.

And I do wanna say one thing to the killers that are out there that are thinking, "You know, I got away with it." Guess what? We're coming after you.

We're gonna find you.

We're gonna arrest you, and we're gonna do everything in our power to make sure that you never breathe free air again.

So many families are lost in the system, particularly when cases go cold and they don't know where they can turn next.

Just tell me, what do you want us to do?

Crime Stoppers victims' advocate Andy Kahan knows how stalled investigations impact those left behind.

I can tell you from someone who's worked with homicide survivors now for almo- just about 30 years, to have a case like that go cold, it's got to gnaw at you.

He was the one that helped me learn and understand the law and why all these things were happening.

This quirky law that Texas enacted in 1977 to alleviate prison overcrowding, it's called the mandatory release law, basically stated any inmate, it didn't matter if you murdered somebody, if you raped somebody, even if you were a serial killer, who committed a crime in Texas between 1977 and 1987 was eligible for automatic release as long as they maintained good behavior in prison.

I guess they never thought that the aftereffects will haunt this state forever.

Hit it, Andy.

You know, the video speaks volumes.

I mean, that, there's no if, ands, or buts.

He knew exactly what he was doing, and he tried to cover it up.

But the real story to me is you had a young lady who fled war-torn, war-torn Ukraine only to end up being murdered in the United States.

Now, we look at what happened with the defendant.

This defendant's got a rap sheet yay long, fourteen arrests, been in and out of jail, in and out of prisons, in and out of mental hospitals, and so forth.

What about it, Andy Kahan?

But in this community particularly, how has that changed for better and for worse?

You know, it's been kind of a roller coaster.

You know, back in the early 90s, you know, we were dealing with a prison overcrowding situation, which led to so many people being released back here who went on to reoffend, often in spectacular fashion.

And then we started seeing what we call the revolving door at the courthouse, particularly and started around 2019.

And there was stuff that I've never seen in 30 years.

I've never seen people getting charged with capital murder, getting out on a $50,000 bond.

I never saw violent offenders getting out on a personal recognizance, get out of jail, free car.

And I think that's a very critical role you have played.