In the wake of the increasingly awful Bill Cosby scandals, California politicians have been working tirelessly to eliminate the statute of limitations on rape cases in California. Due to the traditional 10 year window, dozens of the women who brought sexual assault allegations against Cosby could not receive any sort of justice because the incidents took place too long ago. However, that is all about to change, as California Gov. Jerry Brown has successfully removed that arbitrary date with the recently passed Justice for Victims Act, stating that no one will be able to avoid being prosecuted for rape, child molestation, and other felony sex crimes because of the statute of limitations.
California joins 17 other states with this act. The new standard will take effect next year, although it will unfortunately not work retroactively for past crimes. However, this is an important step forward according to Caroline Heldman, an Occidental College professor who co-founded the EndRapeSOL campaign:
“Rape survivors face many barriers to reporting this crime, but an arbitrary legal time limit is no longer a barrier in California. 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.”
While the new practice may not help past victims, it is an important shift moving forward. With an increased intolerance for such crimes, the passage of time will no longer protect this type of offender, and that can only be seen as a positive change.
(Via The Huffington Post)