BishopAccountability.org
	The Time to Act Is Now Boston Herald [Massachusetts] September 26, 2005 Defrocked priest Paul Shanley, a child rapist, is sitting in a jail cell today. Most right-minded people would agree that's exactly where he should be. But Shanley is behind bars in large measure because of luck, and that should trouble anyone concerned about justice for victims of child rape. Thanks to a loophole in state law, when Shanley left the Bay State in 1990 for sunny California, the statute of limitations on his crimes stopped ticking. Had he stayed in Massachusetts all that time, he probably wouldn't have faced prosecution because his accuser took years to report the crime. Lawmakers have the opportunity to right that wrong, and they should take it. For years, child advocates have been calling for elimination of the 15-year statute of limitations in cases of child rape and certain other sex crimes – a law that has kept dozens of accused priests and others from facing criminal prosecution, since their accusers typically didn't report the crimes until adulthood. They have also called for eliminating the statute of limitations governing civil cases, which prevented victims like Heather Mackey Godin from pursuing a lawsuit against the Archdiocese of Worcester, even though former priest Robert Kelley admitted he raped her when she was a child and, like Shanley, went to jail. The legislation has gone nowhere in the past, but appears to be gaining momentum. Sen. Robert Creedon (D-Brockton), Senate chairman of the Judiciary Committee, told the State House News Service that there is an "unquestionable desire" among his colleagues to make the change in the civil law; let's hope the same is true of the criminal statute. Opponents say the bill threatens the accused's ability to defend himself – evidence, and memories, grow stale with time. But artificial barriers to prosecution and civil justice serve no one. No person accused of raping a child should be able to avoid paying the price just by running out the clock.
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