Push to end statute of limitations for sex crimes brings support, hesitancy

A bill to end the statute of limitations for level 3 felony rape and child molestation originated from a conversation between a survivor and two legislators.

In Indiana the majority of sex crimes have a five-year statute of limitation, with exceptions granted for newly discovered DNA evidence, a recording or a confession. Children have until age 31 to report the alleged crime.

Sexual assault survivor Carissa Siekmann approached Sen. Scott Alexander, R-Muncie, and Rep. J.D. Prescott, R-Union City, about changing the statute.

Initially Alexander was hesitant on whether he was the correct person to carry the bill but ultimately decided it was the right thing to do.

“The victims of this crime get a life sentence when the crime happens,” Alexander said. “I guess part of my thought process is the person that committed that crime should have to live with this for the rest of their lives as well.”

Senate Bill 151 was introduced in the 2024 legislative session for the first time and received strong support from the Senate.

The bill had three authors and 33 co-authors along with four House sponsors. It passed out of the Senate on third reading unanimously.

It was then referred to the House Court and Criminal Code Committee and ended there.

Rep. Wendy McNamara, the committee chair and an Evansville Republican, told the authors and sponsors that she preferred the bill go through an interim study committee first, as most major changes to the criminal code do.

She explained that would provide more time for the measure to be thoroughly discussed.

Study committee

The Corrections and Criminal Code interim study committee met on Sept. 10 to discuss the measure and heard testimony from several sexual assault survivors and representatives from the Indiana Prosecuting Attorneys Council and the Indiana Public Defender Council.

Siekmann testified during the legislative session and again at the study committee meeting retelling her story for the legislators.

She said she was raped more than 20 years ago during her high school senior trip abroad. But she said the investigation into the incident concluded with an apology from the group of men who assaulted her and a stuffed animal from the detective.

“This crime was committed without a deadly weapon. But is fear not just as deadly? How many assailants does it take to be considered deadly?” Siekmann asked the committee.

She said she deserves the right to face her perpetrators before a jury of her peers.

“I deserve the right to heal, grow, mature then fight for justice when I’m not just a young teenager,” Siekmann said to the committee.

She also brought a petition with hundreds of signatures in support of the legislation.

“She’s such a strong lady to be able to bring this and tell her story again.” Alexander said. “That was the thing I was trying to avoid, if possible, is having to have her and her family relive their story in front of Legislature again.”

Indiana Public Defender Council attorney Joel Wieneke argued that eliminating the statute of limitations would create a “slippery slope” toward eliminating it for other serious crimes.

“Our concern, though, is that we take away the statute of limitations for these specific level three felonies, it could create a slippery slope and lead to the abolition of statute of limitations in other serious crimes that are similarly prosecuted, oftentimes based upon the uncorroborated testimony of one witness alone,” Wineneke said.

He said they don’t have empathy for those who have committed the offenses.

“But the reality is, there will be some people who are accused of committing these offenses who did not, and through the passage of time, fading of memories, it becomes even more and more hard for an individual to be able to defend themselves from such allegations,” Wineneke said.

He added that the statute of limitations encourages timely reporting of the crimes.

“It encourages diligence by the state in order to pursue these charges and make sure that the victims’ claims are being heard in a timely fashion, and the cases are being brought to trial,” Wineneke said.

Alexander was out of town at a leadership conference in Kentucky so he was unable to attend the interim study committee meeting. He said he disagreed with Wineneke’s testimony.

“I wish I was there to say something. I probably would have said ‘this is different,’” Alexander said. “I don’t know this, and I’ll never know this, but based on the stories that I’ve heard from people like Carissa, this crime is different in the way that it affects the victim and the families of these victims going forward.”

Courtney Curtis, assistant executive director at the prosecuting attorney council, testified that the age limitation for prosecuting child sex crimes is “arbitrary.”

“These children who are victims of this horrific crime that they carry with them. Their bodies are literally a crime scene for the rest of their lives,” Curtis said.

According to statistics from Indiana Coalition to End Sexual Assault and Human Trafficking, only 12% of child sex abuse is reported and 63% of all sexual assaults go unreported.

Beth White, the coalition’s president and CEO, said she works with a lot of survivors who can take a long time to come to terms with what happened to them.

“What we’re trying to seek, really, is the opportunity for rape or child sex abuse of any kind to be commenced at any time,” White said. “It’s the issue of survivors taking time to come forward, or not feeling that they can come forward, or not feeling comfortable or strong enough to navigate the criminal legal system.”

McNamara said while the committee was scheduled to meet again on Oct. 2, it is not necessary.

The interim study committee will submit a summary report, not recommendations, to the Legislative Council by Nov. 1 in preparation for the 2025 legislative session that begins in January.

Second try

Alexander said that now the bill was discussed in study committee it can move forward.

“We can get back to try and make this thing a reality and give these folks a place to stand as the ultimate goal, and if nothing else, tell their story,” Alexander said.

Prescott said he looks forward to sponsoring the bill if Alexander asks him to again.

Both lawmakers said they may look at the strategy of proposing the bill in both chambers.

“I’d be happy to introduce on the House side as well, if that’s the best route to go, which, to me, it’s with whichever route is going to make the most sense of getting it through,” Prescott said.

McNamara said she would prefer to look at alternative options like changing the age limit for prosecution of child sex crimes.

“I probably would lean more towards changing the age. But that doesn’t mean that I’m not open to continue that discussion,” McNamara said.

She added that previously she asked why 31 was the age that was chosen and she didn’t get her answer until the study committee. The age limitation comes from legislation in the 1990s.

This will be McNamara’s 15th year in the legislature so she was there when the Indiana General Assembly reformed the state’s criminal code in 2014.

“I always felt it’s my responsibility to protect the reforms we did in 2014 so that it doesn’t get so lopsided again,” McNamara said. “I look at every increase in penalty and enhancement and aggregate, aggravator, you name it, in a lot of depth. That’s a lot of consideration, because we do not want to be back where we were in 2014 having to spend another 10 years to undo all these additional penalties and make it unbalanced.”

Indiana is among 37 states plus the District of Columbia that have a statute of limitations for rape and child molestation cases that are level 3 felonies. Thirteen states do not have a statute of limitations. There is no statute of limitations on level 1 and 2 felonies.•