Statue of limitations

What the hell is the point of the statue of limitations for misdemeanors and felonies?

I get why it's a good idea for infractions, so prosecutors don't waste their time with a 6 year old jaywalking ticket, but why does it exist for crimes like rape?

Because they don't need proof for rape allegations

You dumbfuck, do you want to get accused of a rape you did 20 years ago?

Lobbies and criminal politicians.
One day someone called in a big favour or someone tried to bury his skeleton deeper in the closet.

I wouldn't want to get accused of any crime I did 20 years ago. That doesn't mean I wouldn't deserve it.

Wrongful convictions are more likely when time-scales are pushed back further and further.

Let's say you're 40, and some girl accuses you of molesting and raping her when she was 8 and you were 20. She didn't come forward until 20 years later because it was "too traumatic."

Let's say you are completely innocent of these allegations.

But her story is so passionate and convincing and emotional that you get convicted anyway. You have no chance at mounting a successful defense, since cases like these tend to rely more on emotion and publicity than on facts or evidence.

Imagine the smiling prosecutors declaring that even though it took 20 years, they finally put away a dangerous pedo-rapist.

Now being being disemboweled in prison by angry inmates. Again, on the basis of a false conviction.

Punishment from the Judicial System is not for revenge but for the greater good of society to remove a dangerous or unsavory person from the community until they are deemed rehabilitated to re-enter society.

If you have charges that you assaulted and robbed a guy 30 years ago, yet there is no evidence for any more recent cases of similar nature, then it's pretty clear that you're not going to do it again....

> statue of limitations
> statue

This is the only correct answer.

You're actually completely incorrect. It's quite astonishing how wrong you are.

>You have no chance at mounting a successful defense

It's actually the exact opposite. You will almost always mount a successful defense because there is no way a prosecutor would be able to convince a jury beyond a reasonable doubt that you committed a crime two decades ago.

Two decades creates alot of doubt that is difficult to reasonably reach beyond.....

You watch too many movies, something like that wouldn't even get to a court once a judge examines the case.
Without a report to the police, solid proof of the crime and with the impossibility to find reliable witnesses and an alibi for the accused, this kind of shit would get trashed immediately.
And even if you met the worst feminazi of judges, you still have a grand jury to persuade with basically nothing on your hands but feels.

Yeah no

Statute of limitations doesn't exist for any indictable offenses (felonies) in Canada.

Good thing Yale's Committee on Sexual Misconduct isn't the US Justice System

Hardly. There have been a number of cases in which sex-abuse convictions have been later overturned BECAUSE they occurred on the basis of nothing but testimonial evidence, and later exonerating evidence was found.

A prosecutor would just put the "victim" on the stand, and your life would be finished. Especially if the jury has any women on it, they'll be sobbing and waiting for their chance to convict you.

You are insufficiently cynical about the way things work in practice, as opposed to in a criminal procedure casebook.

t. a lawyer

I understand but its also your job as the defense to paint that witness/plantiff as fucking crazy, right?

Women don't have the same fraternal bonds that men do. Women love to tear down other women.

Better question, why is rape considered a crime?

Yeah just like how the Duke lacrosse rape allegations never made it to court since it could be proven the guy was on the other side of town when the rape happened

oh wait

Grammatical errors are a diamond dozen on Sup Forums.

This.
The biggest factor in self control is age btw.
.
also it stops police-state abuse. If they don't like you, easier to make up or trump up some stuff that happened 20 years ago.

They've often told us reasons for time limits are:

- the state has responsibility to act quickly, no loitering with crimes
- efficiency: no overburdening a system having limited resources with crimes that are not relevant anymore
- alternative punishment: the perpetrator would have lived with a constant fear of getting caught, and as punishments are always limited in time or with a possibility to be limited in time (at least here), the time limit offers the perpetrator some peace of mind (after 30 years or so).

You need to be careful talking like that, it's a doggy dog world out there. Don't put proper grammar on a petal stool. For all intensive purposes you're right, but when you get down to brass stacks you shouldn't take it for granite.

I don't think you realize how fucked the U.S. Court/police system is. In many many ways. Police lie, no one disbelieves police, D.A.s threaten you with 50 years unless you confess, and lots of other things. If anything TV/movies makes it look much better.
.
Pro tip: you will never get a honest day in U.S. court unless you are rich or famous. All the D.As know all the judges and defenders. It goes like this, " well I lost last time so you get this one." I'm not even joking. Source: former private dick. In Japan on vacation

>Story is so passionate and convincing and emotional

Have you ever witnessed actual legal proceedings or studied the law? This cannot get you locked up in any way whatsoever. Read a book

you could also probably sue if they published anything defamatory

Why would you willingly go on vacation in Japan? That's going to London: it's only nice in fiction.