State lawmakers re-consider eliminating statute of limitations on sex crimes

OLYMPIA (Jan. 18) -- A bill passed in the State House of Representatives last year offers some hope for people who were sexually assaulted years ago and want to see the one who harmed them prosecuted. But that hope faces some difficult challenges in the Senate.

House Bill 1155 would eliminate the statute of limitations for the most serious rape and sexual assault offenses.

The Law and Justice committee in the Senate is the next step for the bill. Committee chair Senator Jamie Pedersen, D-Seattle, who has discretion on legislation the committee will hear, said that he would not hear this bill.

“Human beings deserve to go on with their lives,” he said. “We have statutes of limitation in every area of the law with the exception of murder. I think that special status is appropriate in cases of murder.”

Still, “The pain and hurt of these crimes don’t go away,” Representative Dan Griffey R-Shelton, the bill’s prime sponsor, said. “They are life long sentences.”

But, Pedersen said, there are many other crimes that can ruin a life including drunk driving and arson. The statute of limitations, he said, is a necessary element of the law.

“I don’t know how you can say somebody shouldn’t have to worry for the rest of their lives if they committed one of those crimes,” Griffey said.

Meeting with sexual assault survivors groups, the Washington Prosecutors Association, Senator Ann Rivers, R-Lewisville and Representative Tina Orwall, D-Kent, Griffey said he is trying to come to a compromise.

Pedersen said he was open to negotiation but stands with his position on keeping some sort of statute of limitations.

“I’m certainly open to looking at lengthening the statute although I think we have a pretty long time after someone reaches the age of majority where the crime can be prosecuted.”

Meanwhile, Griffey said that Pedersen has turned down his requests for a one-on-one discussion.

The current law holds that a rape victim under 18 years old has until their 30th birthday to press charges. Someone more than 18 years old has 10 years to begin prosecution if the crime was reported within one year; and only three years to begin prosecution if the crime was not reported within one year.

Griffey’s wife, Dinah, gave an emotional testimony last year at the bill’s public hearing in the House saying she was sexually assaulted when she was a child. This is one of the main reasons Dan Griffey said he started working on the bill during his first year in session.

Dinah Griffey and another assault survivor, Christina-Marie Wright, both testified for the bill in January 2016 and 2017.

“I’ll keep coming if you don’t pass it,” Dinah Griffey said at the bill’s hearing in January 2017.

Representative Griffey agrees. He said if the bill doesn’t get a senate hearing this year, he plans to re-introduce the bill as long as he has a place in the legislature.

Wright said about 85 percent of sexual assault survivors knew their attacker or abuser. This, she said, makes it especially difficult for children to come forward until they are much older when the statute of limitations blocks them from seeking prosecution.

“We need the opportunity for justice no matter how long it takes us for us to find our voice,” Wright said.

In old cases, investigators can sometimes discover new evidence. Even when someone has DNA or recorded evidence against their attacker, if they seek prosecution after the statute of limitations period is up, there is nothing an attorney can do.

Tom McBride, executive secretary for the Washington Association for Prosecuting Attorneys, cautions that old cases are extremely hard to prove. His organization was opposed to the bill in 2016 for this reason.

Often prosecutors will not take cases that are more than 10 years old because evidence may be lost or contaminated, recollections fade, and it’s hard to convince a jury of guilt beyond reasonable doubt, he said.

Now the Washington Association for Prosecuting Attorneys’ position has changed. With advances in DNA technology like sexual assault kits, recorded video, or photograph evidence, McBride said he is slightly more optimistic that an old case has a chance of success.

A bill passed last year, HB 1109, allows local law enforcement to investigate new evidence found in previously untested sexual assault kits, essentially looking into cold cases.

As of 2013, eight states did not have any statute of limitations for prosecuting felony sexual assault, according to the National Center for Victims of Crime.