The Oregon legislature may extend its statute of limitations for rape and sexual assault to 12 years. That billis expected to get a public hearing in the next 2 weeks in Salem.
Last month, the state house voted to double the statute of limitations for people to report sexual assault. The bill is now in the Senate Judiciary committee, which is chaired by Democratic Senator Floyd Prozanksi. He says the statute of limitations is currently at 6 years.
Prozanski: "Clearly, we've made a distinction that we feel that these types of offences, the class 1s of sex offenses should have a higher, longer length of statute of limitations. But at the same time, we need to maintain a process and perspective as to what is the appropriate level that it should be extended to from 6."
Prozanski says the legislature wants to look at statutes of limitations across the spectrum of crimes. A work group made up of prosecutors and members of law enforcement will be doing that. Oregon's statute of limitations for rape cases is among the lowest in the country.
