COLUMBUS – Ohio Attorney General David Yost and five former attorneys general have joined a call to eliminate statutes of limitations on bringing rape charges in the state.
Yost, a Republican, says rape should be treated like murder, which has no limits on when charges can be brought. Ohio’s current statute of limitations for rape is 20 years and current law generally limits bringing many felony charges to six years after the crime.
“We can’t let a rapist run out the clock on justice,” he said.
According to Yost, more than half the states in the U.S. have already eliminated the statute of limitations for rape.
“The profound invasion of the person makes rape like no other crime – a violation of the body, the mind and the soul. We now know that the trauma associated with a rape has a lifetime impact on a survivor, making it a different sort of offense than theft or dealing drugs or extortion,” reads the letter sent May 31 to Senate President Larry Obhof (R-Medina) and Speaker of the House Larry Householder (R-Glenford).
Yost signed the letter, along with former attorneys general Richard Cordray, Nancy Rogers, Jim Petro, Betty Montgomery and Lee Fisher.
They followed a similar request made last month by another former attorney general, Gov. Mike DeWine, in light of the scandal at Ohio State University involving a team doctor accused of abusing dozens of male students decades ago.
The call by the former attorneys general was praised by Assistant House Minority Leader Kristin Boggs (D-Columbus) and Democratic Women’s Caucus Chair Tavia Galonski (D-Akron), who have co-sponsored a proposal to lift the statute of limitations on rape.
“Ohio’s outdated criminal and civil rape codes fail victims and limit their ability to seek the justice they deserve…We applaud Attorney General Yost’s support for lifting the statute of limitations, and look forward to working with him and our colleagues on both sides of the aisle to see that survivors of sexual violence are heard—no matter when they come forward,” the two said in a joint statement issued Monday.
Their proposal would eliminate the statute of limitations for criminal and civil sex crimes and spousal exemptions for rape, sexual battery, and other sexual offenses.