house Bill H.R. 4346
Incentivizing States to Eliminate Statutes of Limitation When Prosecuting Sexual Assaults
Argument in favor
There's no statute of limitation on murder, why should there be on sexual assault? If a state refuses to eliminate them, the federal government should reduce that state’s law enforcement grant funding.
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01/12/2016
I had to think about this long and hard. Finally I sided with the YEA's. There is no statute of limitation on murder. I feel that rape is the most traumatic crime committed against an individual, male or female. We have seen recently that it can take years for a rape victims to come forward and identify their attacker. For this reason the statute of limitation should be removed from this crime.
03/22/2016
With the huge backlogs of rape kits, many crimes are not being prosecuted in a timely manner. Time for this to change.
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03/23/2016
Of course. Rape is a horrific crime that often retraumitizes the victim when prosecuted.
Argument opposed
The federal government should leave it to the states. One-fifth of a state’s allotment of law enforcement grants shouldn't be held hostage if a state wants to maintain statutes of limitations on sexual assault.
03/23/2016
This is a state issue and using federal tax dollars is nothing less than a bribe at best, extortion at worst.
03/24/2016
Crimes have a statute of limitations to protect people from frivolous lawsuits and the difficulty of proving guilt or innocence after a long period of time.
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06/17/2016
States can regain a measure of sovereignty by getting off the federal government teat. Refuse all federal block grants and regain your 10th Amendment rights.
I had to think about this long and hard. Finally I sided with the YEA's. There is no statute of limitation on murder. I feel that rape is the most traumatic crime committed against an individual, male or female. We have seen recently that it can take years for a rape victims to come forward and identify their attacker. For this reason the statute of limitation should be removed from this crime.
This is a state issue and using federal tax dollars is nothing less than a bribe at best, extortion at worst.
With the huge backlogs of rape kits, many crimes are not being prosecuted in a timely manner. Time for this to change.
Crimes have a statute of limitations to protect people from frivolous lawsuits and the difficulty of proving guilt or innocence after a long period of time.
States can regain a measure of sovereignty by getting off the federal government teat. Refuse all federal block grants and regain your 10th Amendment rights.
The Federal Government should stay out of states' concerns unless it is an area the is specifically granted by the Constitution. The Constitution IS the law of our land. Learn it, Love it, Live by it, or leave for someplace else where the government can overrun the people's rights. I'm quite sure you will be eager to return to the USA, where our soldiers have fought and died for our freedoms. We hold those freedoms dear and will not give them up without a fight. Feds, mind your own business.
Of course. Rape is a horrific crime that often retraumitizes the victim when prosecuted.
Leave it to the states, this is one of their most basic rights.
How many people recently have been found innocent after 20 years serving prison terms because of the lack of evidence DNA
The government seems to like withholding money to get the states to do what they want. This is wrong and the practice needs to stop.
Why is there a statute ? The victims if they survive deal with it for he rest of their lives
State issue. If the people in a particular state don't agree with their state's laws, they need to work on getting those laws changed at the state level instead of turning to the Federal government. Violent crimes are in the state's jurisdiction.
Sexual assaults, after a certain time, become a he said she said. Prosecuting more than a year later is near impossible since all of the evidence is gone by then.
This is not a states' rights issue, this is a human rights issue. It should be non-negotiable that women can accuse a rapist. There is no statute of limitations on fraud against the Federal government if you cheat on your taxes. I suppose Republicans think it is obvious that $$$ is much more important than women. (I suspect that this is a lost cause: the protected class in American is WHITE MEN. The richer he is, the more protected. The only women who are protected without having to pass the slut test are considered the PROPERTY of rich white men. It is very sad. But also very, very true!)
Violence against women must be prosecutable like felony murder.
This is a matter for the individual states to decide. The federal government doesn't need to interfere! Moreover, as horrible as rape is, it is not the same as murder.
Bureaucratic power grab. If we want uniform laws, all determined by Congress, let's be upfront about it and debate ending federalism and the states.
I would say YEA if this bill wasn't so extreme. Rape cases are very difficult to prove so it makes sense that some statute exists. This statute, however should be much longer than most others to compensate for time it takes for these cases to be brought before the courts.
Some crimes are so heinous that there should be no statute of limitation.
Leave the states alone. We don't need more federal encroachment into state matters.