Ian Kullgren, Brenda Tracy, sexual assault survivors urge lawmakers extend time limit for rape prosecutions, OregonLive

Brenda Tracy and two other high-profile survivors of sexual assault urged lawmakers Wednesday to extend the time frame in which officials can prosecute rape cases.

Testifying before a meeting of the House Judiciary Committee, Tracy and other advocates asked legislators to more than triple the statute of limitations, from six to at least 20 years. Committee members are weighing three possible changes under House Bill 2317: extending Oregon’s limit to 12 years, to 20 years, or to eliminate the limit altogether.

The 12- and 20-year limits would allow crimes against minors to be prosecuted after the deadline, if charges were filed before the victim’s 30th birthday.

Tracy, in her testimony, described the terror she felt in the early morning hours of June 24, 1998, when four football players — including two on the Oregon State University team — stood around cheering as they took turns raping her. Later, she learned none would be prosecuted.

“I truly felt like a piece of garbage,” said Tracy, who first revealed her story publicly to The Oregonian/OregonLive’s John Canzano last fall. “The only thing I thought at that point was ‘How do I kill myself so my children don’t find my body?'”

“This event could have killed me,” she said, fighting back tears. “And for some victims, it does.”

Tracy was joined by Jenny Wendt Ewing, a Eugene resident who successfully pushed for similar changes in her home state of Indiana, and Danielle Tudor, a longtime Oregon activist who was attacked by “Jogger Rapist” Richard Gillmore in 1979.

Although Gillmore was caught in 1986 and sentenced to prison, charges were never brought in Tudor’s case because the statute of limitations for rape — at the time, three years — had expired.

“Under today’s six-year archaic law, my rapist would still not have been prosecuted,” Tudor told legislators. “My rapist was clever enough and intelligent enough not to leave DNA evidence behind on the majority of his victims, so under today’s current law with DNA evidence, he still would not be charged. If we are truly concerned about public safety, then we need to make sure this scenario never happens again.”

Oregon has one of the shortest limits in the country for prosecuting rape cases. Thirty-three states have at least decadelong statutes of limitations; of those, 20 have no time limit at all.

Even so, lawyers’ advocates say extending the limit too long would make it difficult to give defendants a fair trial. They argue evidence — including text messages, social media correspondence and phone records — disappear over time.

“The statute of limitations is not a technicality,” Gail Meyer, legislative representative for the Oregon Criminal Defense Lawyers Association, said in an interview. “It’s the underpinning of a fair trial.”

“You can’t go back 20 years and shine the floodlight of truth,” she added.

Victims’ advocates, however, say extending the limit wouldn’t lead to wrongful convictions because only the strong cases would be prosecuted.

“I know we’re afraid that there’s going to be he-said, she-said cases that come up,” said Ewing, who led an effort to extend Indiana’s limit after a man who confessed to raping her in 2005 was allowed to walk away free. “You know, the burden of proof is still going to be on the prosecution.”

Another public hearing on the bill will be held this week before the committee decides whether to send it to the House floor.

 

Full article here: http://www.oregonlive.com/politics/index.ssf/2015/04/brenda_tracy_sexual_assault_su.html