http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Statute_of_limitations

Purpose[edit]

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The purpose and effect of Statutes of Limitation is to protect defendants. There are three reasons that support the existence of Statutes of Limitation, namely: (a) that a plaintiff with good causes of actions should pursue them with reasonable diligence; (b) that a defendant might have lost evidence to disprove a stale claim; and (c) that long dormant claims have more of cruelty than justice in them (Halsbury's Laws of England, 4th edition). The general rule is that the limitation period begins when the plaintiff’s cause of action accrues or is made to be aware of the injury that might have happened a long time ago (e.g.asbestos injury). In Classical Athens a five-year statute of limitations was established for all cases other than homicide and for prosecutions against unconstitutional laws, which had no limitation. Demosthenes wrote that these statutes of limitations were adopted to specifically to control sycophants.[1]

leftyohiolib

(5,917 posts)

5. yea i saw that i guess more to the point would be

Reply to pkdu (Reply #2)

Sat Jun 22, 2013, 01:09 PM

Jun 2013

the protections that are set up in the statute should apply to all laws since things like loss of evidence can happen in any crime. or maybe better said none of that matters in cases of homicide so if they can say none of those conditions matter for that type crime shouldn't it be that none of that matters for any crime- crime is crime if someone vandalizes my house and i find out 8 years later who did it. i think they should still be held accountable.
or lets say someone outs a cia operative in wartime should still be held accountable even if it's a decade later

pnwmom

(110,261 posts)

8. Witnesses die, forget, or become otherwise unable to testify.

Reply to leftyohiolib (Reply #5)

Sat Jun 22, 2013, 01:13 PM

Jun 2013

The chance of this increases with every year. Also, if the defendant has kept a scrupulous life since the offense, prosecuting him for a long ago crime seems to defeat much of the purpose -- which is still hoped to involve rehabilitation.

The reason that murder isn't subject to a statute of limitations is because the crime is so great that the necessity to prosecute has been deemed to outweigh the problems with a delayed prosecution.