PENNSYLVANIA
Daily Times
I’m a lawyer, as the words at the end of this column signal to the eagle-eyed reader. I’m proud of my profession, of its capacity to craft some semblance of justice for victims, and of its overriding goal of order and equity. One of my favorite quotes is spoken by Thomas More in “A Man For All Seasons” when he tries to explain to an incredulous man named Roper why laws are necessary, even when they end up protecting the guilty: “When the last law was down, and the Devil turned ‘round on you, where would you hide, Roper, the laws all being flat? This country is planted thick with laws, from coast to coast, Man’s laws not God’s. And if you cut them down, and you’re just the man to do it, do you really think you could stand upright in the winds that would blow then? Yes, I’d give the Devil benefit of law, for my own safety’s sake.”
I’m beginning to think that the Pennsylvania Legislature is taking its lead from Roper, the man who wanted to abolish those evil laws that, in some unfortunate but necessary instances, protect the criminals among us. Of course, the members don’t feel that way at all. But I’m getting ahead of myself.
Last month, the Pennsylvania House of Representatives passed, by a very wide margin, House Bill 1947, which is ostensibly designed to make it easier for the victims of sexual abuse to obtain justice. The exact parameters of that justice are translated into both penal and monetary terms, with provisions that eliminate the statute of limitations for prosecuting abusers at the criminal end, and that extend the window in which victims can sue for money damages at the civil end. Like Roper in “A Man For All Seasons,” the representatives seem to believe that statutes of limitations are bad things, legal obstacles to a true and tangible justice that can be deposited in a bank account.
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