WASHINGTON (DC)
Fox 5
[with video]
By Paul Wagner, FOX 5 Reporter
WASHINGTON –
The U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia is urging the D.C. city council to eliminate the 15-year statute of limitations on sex crimes.
U.S. Attorney Ron Machen says advances in DNA have erased the need for such a law. But a bill that would wipe the statute off the books has gone nowhere since being introduced early last year.
Since at least 2004, the U.S. Attorney’s Office has repeatedly asked the D.C. city council to eliminate the statute of limitations on sex crimes. The council members have listened. But other than increasing the statute from six to 15 years, they have refused to eliminate it.
Machen says the time is now and at least two city council members agree.
D.C’s top prosecutor says there are many reasons to eliminate the statute of limitations in the District of Columbia. But if he could cite one example, it would be the case of Kirk Odom. He is a man wrongfully convicted in a 1981 rape who served 20 years in prison.
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