Columbus, OH. (WOWO): An Ohio Supreme Court case could affect the state’s initiative to clear the backlog of untested rape kits.

The state is appealing a decision by the Eighth District Court of Appeals in the case of Demetrius Jones. The appeals court had dismissed his rape and kidnapping charges because of prosecutors’ delays in the case.

The Joyful Heart Foundation is backing the state’s decision to appeal.

“If this opinion stands, it really undermines the rape-kit testing initiative that has been so successful in Ohio,” says the group’s Ilse Knecht. “It will have a huge impact on victims’ ability to seek justice in the courts.”

Jones was charged in 2012 when evidence in a rape kit linked him to a 1993 incident.