NEW YORK
New York Daily News
Editorial
With the days dwindling in Albany’s legislative session, two perniciously false arguments stand between victims of child sexual abuse and access to the legal system that could bring those who harmed them to justice.
The victims are seeking legislation that would eliminate the criminal statute of limitations on sex crimes, extend the statute of limitations on civil suits that now ends when a victim turns 23 and give victims who have been barred from the courts a fresh one year to file suits.
Although priests are by far a minority of those who commit sex crimes against minors, the Catholic Church has pressed the Legislature to squelch the so-called one-year look-back, while supporting the other measures.
The first perniciously false argument voiced by church representatives and like-thinking legislators was best expressed last month to the Daily News by Democratic Assembly Majority Leader Joe Morelle of Rochester:
“With each passing year, it gets harder and harder to reconstruct the truth.”
Republican Senate Deputy Majority Leader John DeFrancisco of Syracuse conveyed the second argument directly to victims:
Giving adults abused as kids the power to go back and press criminal charges or file lawsuits would invite fabricated claims of abuse against the innocent.
Neither knows what the hell he’s talking about — and Linda Fairstein does.
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