Clear momentum on California SOL removal for felony sex crimes
In baseball parlance, the California Assembly just threw a shutout last Thursday, overwhelmingly passing a bill addressing time limits related to sex crime prosecutions.
Now that legislation moves to the Senate, which in all likelihood will endorse the bill with the same enthusiasm that House members did.
Actually, it was the Senate that moved first, with an earlier version of Senate Bill 813 sailing unanimously through that body in June on a 33-0 vote. With a few tweaks, the legislation shot through the Assembly with true aplomb, being approved by a 70-0 vote. If the Senate acts similarly again, as it is expected to do, SB 813 will soon be placed before Gov. Jerry Brown, ready for his signature and its enactment as a state law.
Unquestionably, the bill is seminal in nature. As noted in a Los Angeles Times article from last week, current law mandates that crimes such as rape and sustained child sexual abuse “must be prosecuted within 10 years unless DNA evidence emerges later.” Moreover, a sex crime committed against a minor must in most cases be prosecuted before that individual turns 40.
SB 813 seeks to materially change that. If passed, it will simply end the statute of limitations on felony sex crimes. The Times notes that they then “could be prosecuted at any time.”
Some critics of the legislation say that it will produce unfair outcomes in select cases, with memories faded, witnesses gone and evidence tainted or otherwise undermined after years have passed since a crime allegedly occurred.
The vote count among state politicians clearly indicates that such an opinion is squarely a minority view, though.
“There are some crimes that are so heinous that there should never be a statute of limitations,” noted one assemblyman.
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