18 January 2024
TOPEKA (KSNT) – People accused of certain sex crimes in the past are no longer protected by the statute of limitations after a bill from the previous legislative session was updated on Wednesday.
Anyone who is a survivor of childhood sexual abuse in the past can now take their offender to criminal and civil court no matter when the crime happened.
Before this legislation, the statute of limitations for these crimes provided a limited time frame for victims to file legal complaints. Last year, House Bill 2127 removed the statute of limitations for criminal prosecution, and extended it for civil cases. This has been a years-long fight for advocates of reform.
“Most of the survivors we have connected with throughout Kansas are in their 40s and 50s,” Survivor and Advocate Lesa Patterson-Kinsey. “But you will not see most of them up here in the Capitol because even after all these decades, it’s difficult to slide back into that pain. Survivors need time to process those emotions.”
Last year’s bill for the statute of limitations extension and reform was passed unanimously. Advocates were asked to follow up in 2024 to completely remove the timeframe for legal action.
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