PENNSYLVANIA
Church Militant
Joseph Pelletier • ChurchMilitant.com • April 6, 2016
Legislators seek abolition of statute of limitations
HARRISBURG, Pa. (ChurchMilitant.com) – Pennsylvania legislators are pushing for reform in the state’s sex crime laws.
In an action Tuesday the Pennsylvania House Judiciary Committee voted 26 to 1 to support a bill seeking to abolish the criminal statute of limitations. Spearheaded by Republican majority chairman Ron Marsico of Dauphin, House Bill 1947 would ensure “no one who sexually abuses a child … will ever be free from criminal prosecution merely because of a lapsed statute of limitations.”
“The issue of the statute of limitations in child sex abuse cases is not a new one in the legislature,” Marsico explains in a statement released Monday.
The proposed changes would also raise “the civil statute-of-limitations age to age 50” from its current ceiling of age 30.
However the tentative reforms will have no retroactive effect. According to Rep. Marsico this is because of the potentially “huge negative impact” such clauses would have on many nonprofit organizations who could face catastrophic lawsuits “for actions that may have occurred decades ago by people who are no longer even affiliated” with the groups.
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