Just two weeks ago, a female claiming to be the victim of sexual battery came forward to report the incident involving two male suspects.
She knew the men who allegedly attacked her, she told Lowndes County sheriff’s deputies, but the incident occurred about a year ago.
Luckily, it wasn’t too late to report the crime, and sheriff’s deputies arrested both suspects last week.
In Mississippi, a person accused of most violent crimes, including sex crimes, can be prosecuted no matter how much time has passed since the offense occurred.
Investigators and prosecutors in criminal cases are often running against the clock in the United States, thanks to statute of limitations laws, which put time limits on prosecutions. In recent years, Mississippi has eliminated many of those statutes, District Attorney Scott Colom said, ensuring victims can report crimes years after they happen and still have them investigated.
The idea behind statutes of limitations is to ensure cases are prosecuted in a timely manner, Colom said. If investigators and prosecutors are racing the clock, they’re more likely to put a reliable case with good evidence together, while making sure evidence doesn’t get “stale.”
But that can become a problem for victims who, particularly in sex crime cases, may not come forward for years — a fairly common occurrence said Lowndes County Sheriff’s Office Capt. Ryan Rickert.
In cases like these, shame or guilt over the attacks often keep victims from coming forward.
“A rape charge is a pretty significant charge, and a lot of times they will go to trial,” Rickert said. “It’s a very public thing and (the victim) will have to relive it. You’d be surprised how many people feel guilty for something that has happened to them.”
Luckily for victims who decide to speak up years after the crime occurred, those crimes can still be prosecuted in Mississippi if there’s enough evidence to land an indictment. This isn’t the case in all states because statutes of limitations vary. In Tennessee, for example, sex crimes against children can be prosecuted until 25 years after the child turns 18.
That law caught national attention last year when former U.S. House Speaker Dennis Hastert was indicted for paying an individual he allegedly abused as a child to not report the abuse decades after it occurred.
The issue Mississippi prosecutors run up against most is when the statute of limitations starts — and stops — applying for less serious felonies like drug crimes and for misdemeanors, which most often have a two-year limit.
Statutes of limitations begin when the crime is committed and can stop applying either after a suspect is indicted or after judges issue a warrant, Colom said. That way, someone who flees the state can still be prosecuted if they return.
“(Say) John Snow…sells marijuana or something,” Colom said. “He may go to Colorado and start selling it legally for five years. We do an arrest warrant from here, (and) we don’t actually serve the arrest warrant on him until five years later…He can still be prosecuted.”
Statutes of limitations don’t come up often in Lowndes County, according to Colom and Rickert. Rickert can only remember running into the issue once since he began working at the department. A few years ago — maybe 2009, he said — he found a boat that had been reported stolen in the late 1990s.
“It was just a little john boat someone had reported stolen off their pond on their property, and I ended up finding it one afternoon,” he said. “It had been so long since it was stolen, I could only backtrack it to a certain point.”
Time is a friend to defendants
Statute of limitations aside, Colom said the more time passes, the harder it is to investigate and prosecute a case.
This is especially true for major criminal cases like murder or when a child victim of sexual abuse comes forward as an adult. It’s much easier to collect evidence if the crime is recent, Colom said.
If years pass between the commission of the crime, anything can happen. Witnesses forget things, die or can’t be found to testify. People lose evidence. Police officers move away and have to come back to the area to testify.
“Typically, you want to try to get your cases tried as soon as possible,” Colom said.
Not that defendants necessarily want that, he added. He recently prosecuted a case in which a man who abused his stepdaughter kept waiving his right to a speedy trial because he was out on bond. He kept filing continuances before finally going to trial and being convicted earlier this year, even though the abuse happened nearly a decade earlier.
“He got 10 years of freedom (before the trial),” Colom said.
That’s fairly common for defendants.
“Time is their friend,” Colom said. “Because like I said, cases usually get worse, not better.”
You can help your community
Quality, in-depth journalism is essential to a healthy community. The Dispatch brings you the most complete reporting and insightful commentary in the Golden Triangle, but we need your help to continue our efforts. In the past week, our reporters have posted 33 articles to cdispatch.com. Please consider subscribing to our website for only $2.30 per week to help support local journalism and our community.
You can help your community
Quality, in-depth journalism is essential to a healthy community. The Dispatch brings you the most complete reporting and insightful commentary in the Golden Triangle, but we need your help to continue our efforts. In the past week, our reporters have posted 33 articles to cdispatch.com. Please consider subscribing to our website for only $2.30 per week to help support local journalism and our community.
