CALIFORNIA
Al Jazeera
At least 16 states have no statute of limitations for rape cases in face of rape kit backlog, delays in reporting crimes
November 10, 2015
by Marisa Taylor @marisahtaylor
A California lawmaker plans to introduce legislation that would eliminate the statute of limitations on rape and some sexual assault cases, joining a handful of other U.S. states that have made the same move.
State Senator Connie M. Leyva, a Democrat from Chino, California said Monday that when the new legislative session begins in January, she will propose scrapping the 10-year statute of limitations on rape cases. The proposed bill would also apply to sexual assault cases involving lewd or lascivious acts, child sexual abuse, oral sex and sexual penetration.
“A sexual predator should not be able to evade legal consequences in California for no other reason than that the time limits set in state law have expired,” Leyva said Monday in a release. “Victims should have the opportunity to prove their accusations in a court of law, even if it is over a decade after the offense was committed.”
The issue of expired statutes of limitations in sex crimes cases has been up for public debate in recent months after reports of allegations by more than a dozen women accusing comedian Bill Cosby of raping or sexually assaulting them. Many of the women’s cases date back to the 1970s and 1980s, meaning that the statute of limitations for criminal suits has expired, although the accusers can — and have — since filed civil suits against him. Cosby has denied the charges.
Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.