RE: How the fuck is there a statute of limitations for rape in New York?
October 17, 2016 at 2:44 pm
(October 17, 2016 at 1:46 pm)Losty Wrote: The killing or raping or whatever is still unlawful even if there's something that prevents charges from being brought up. I someone raped another person 50 years ago and cannot be brought up on charges because they're no longer living their actions were still unlawful. The same if someone raped someone 5 years ago and cannot be brought up on charges because the SoL has passed, the rape itself was still unlawful.
That's the problem though, if something is "unlawful", it's against the law. If the law has a statue of limitations, then the law doesn't apply to any events that happened prior to the period defined by the statute, so whilst at the time of the rape it was against the law, 5 years later it is not.
Effectively what the statute of limitations is saying is "rape is against the law unless the rape occurs 5 years or more before it is reported".
The argument Drich seems to be making (however poorly worded I think it is), is that rapes that occurred 5 years before they are reported aren't rapes in the sense that they aren't crimes, because they aren't unlawful anymore. I think his argument in that respect is correct, and it's effectively legal to rape someone provided the victim doesn't report it within 5 years, because after that time the person can't be charged with it.
That doesn't mean the rape (i.e. the actual non-consensual sex) didn't happen of course.
