California Governor Jerry Brown has signed a bill widely believed to be inspired by allegations against Bill Cosby. The new law means accused sex offenders will no longer be able to avoid prosecution due to the 10-year statute of limitations in California.
“Rape survivors face many barriers to reporting this crime, but an arbitrary legal time limit is no longer a barrier in California,” Caroline Heldman, an Occidental College professor who co-chaired the EndRapeSOL campaign that called for such a law. “This law will only affect a small number of survivors who have solid evidence that a crime occurred many years after the fact, but for these survivors, this law is life-changing.”
The law states that it allows “the prosecution of rape, sodomy, lewd or lascivious acts, continuous sexual abuse of a child, oral copulation, and sexual penetration, that are committed under certain circumstances, as specified, to be commenced at any time.”
Removal of the statute of limitations does have its critics.
“Civil rights groups and public defenders say the California bill could lead to false convictions as memories fade among victims and witnesses,” AP reports.
The new law will apply to crimes committed after January 1, 2017.
“In California, [Bill Cosby] faces a civil suit by a woman now in her 50s who alleges that Cosby plied her with alcohol and molested her in 1974 at the Playboy Mansion when she was aged 15,” according to Reuters. He faces a criminal suit in Pennsylvania.
The new law is not retroactive, so the Cosby accusers won’t be able to bring cases because of it. However, attorney Gloria Allred, who represents several of Cosby’s accusers, said it’s a positive step.
“It puts sexual predators on notice that the passage of time may no longer protect them from serious criminal consequences for their acts of sexual violence,” said Allred.
Seventeen other states have reportedly already eliminated the statute of limitations on rape, according to the California Women’s Law Center.
