Statute of limitations could be eliminated for violent crimes - WQOW TV: Eau Claire, WI NEWS18 News, Weather, and Sports
"Madison (WQOW) - One violent, unsolved crime may cause the statute of limitations on three different types of crimes to be eliminated. A State Assembly committee took the first step towards that end this week. The legislation approved by the Assembly Committee on Criminal Justice and Corrections stems from just one truly brutal crime committed more than a decade ago.
"In 1999, a young woman was dragged off the front porch of her mother's home... into a park across the street... brutally stabbed about the neck, face, arms about 25 times and left to die," says former Appleton Police Detective Randall Cook.
But, somehow, that young woman, who has only been identified as "Heather" survived.
"It took at least ten years to really feel like myself again and regain my spirit. It's not the same and never will be because I think about this everyday," Heather says.
Heather doesn't have closure, because her attacker has never been caught.
But despite the horrific nature of that incident, even if the man who did it held a press conference here at the capitol today and said he was guilty, he couldn't be arrested for a crime.
"I was pretty astounded to find out that the statute of limitations was only six years," says Rep. Jim Steineke (R-5th Assembly District).
Representative Jim Steineke of Kaukauna authored the Assembly bill to eliminate that statute of limitations on attempted homicide, first-degree sexual assault and attempted first degree sexual assault.
"The victims of these crimes have to live with the physical and emotional scars of the crimes for a lifetime, but yet, under current law, we're letting the perpetrators have some peace of mind after six years, it just doesn't make any sense," Rep. Steineke says."
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