Home >> United States & Canada >> Courts & Laws  Email  Print Statute of Limitations for Crimes in New York State Todd Spodek, Esq. - 12/16/2009 In New York State there are laws called Statute of Limitations (“SOL”). These laws mean that the District Attorney’s office has to file charges against an individual within a certain time period. They can be found under Section 30.10 of the the Criminal Procedure Law (“CPL”). Criminal prosecutions must be started within the following time periods:
Class A Felony – Any time the prosecution wants.
Class B-E Felony – Within 5 years after the commission of the offense.
Misdemeanors – Within 2 years after the commission of the offense.
Petty Offenses – Within 1 year after the commission of the offense.
EXCEPTIONS:
As with all laws, there are exceptions.
A prosecution for larceny committed by a person in a fiduciary duty may be commenced within one year of:
a) the facts being discovered
b) or in the exercise of due diligence should have been discovered by the aggrieved party, or a person with a legal duty to represent him who is not himself implicated in the commission of the offense.
Also there is an exception for people in Public Service or Public Servants.
They can be prosecuted anytime they are in office, or within 5 years of termination of their service. However, the time to prosecute shall not be extended more then 5 years beyond the general periods I listed above.
There is also special exceptions for any misdemeanor under the Tax Code, and Chapter 46 of the Administrative Code. Those have a 3 year period.
Certain sex crimes have a different statute of limitations as well. If you are prosecuted for sexual conduct in the first degree PL 130.75 or sexual conduct in the second degree under PL 130.80 then it is 5 years from the most recent act of sexual conduct.
Now if we are talking about prosecutions for any of the sex offenses in Article 130 of the PL committed against a child who under 18 or incest as defined in PL 255.50 against a child who is under 18 or use of a child in a sexual performance as defined in section PL 263.05 then the SOL does not begin to run until:
a) the child has reached the age of 18 years old, or
b) the offense is reported to a law enforcement agency or statewide central register of child abuse and maltreatment
Whichever occurs earlier.
EXCLUDABLE TIME PERIODS:
Any period following the comission of the offense for which the defendant was
a) continuously out of New York State, or
b) the whereabouts of the defendant were unknown and un-ascertainable with reasonable dilligence. However, they can not be extended more then then 5 years above the original SOL.
Also, when a prosecution for an offense is timely started yet dismissed by the Court under directions that another charge for the same offense would be brought or another charge based on the same conduct would be brought then the time period from the filing of the original charge to the dismissal of the original charge is not counted towards the SOL.
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