Two bills approved during Oregon’s 2016 legislative session address sexual assault. One lifts the statute of limitation for first-degree sex crimes. The other puts procedures in place to process untested rape kits.
Oregon State Senator Floyd Prozanski worked on both bills. He says Senate Bill 1600 will remove the 12 year statute of limitations for sexual assault if a prosecuting attorney finds evidence verifying the crime.
Prozanski says victims sometimes have a hard time coming forward right away.
Prozanski: “Why should someone because of their inability to face the trauma, the pressure, be obligated to put themselves in a situation that for their own mental health could be detrimental?”
Senate Bill 1571 directs law enforcement and crime labs to process the thousands of backlogged untested rape kits in Oregon. And it creates a procedure for testing and analyzing kits in active cases.
Prozanski says he expects the Governor to sign both bills into law.