What is a “Statute of Limitations”?
In the criminal setting, a statute of limitations is a statute that prescribes a maximum period of time after an event that the State can press criminal charges.
A criminal prosecution must be commenced within a certain time for most criminal offenses. The limitation lengths vary by crime. Some crimes do not have any limitations, meaning the State can bring charges against the person anytime, even if it is 50 years later. Crimes which result in the death of the victim, kidnapping, and labor trafficking are all crimes that do not have a statute of limitation period in Minnesota.
If the accused is guilty and an action is not commenced within the statute of limitations period, the statute of limitations will prevent a conviction. The legislature can eliminate or change a criminal statute of limitations for a crime only if the existing statute of limitations has not already expired.
What are the “Current Limitations Periods”?
CRIME |
STATUTE OF LIMITATION |
Any crime resulting in the death of the victim |
NO |
Kidnapping |
NO |
Labor trafficking if the victim is under the age of 18 |
NO |
Labor trafficking if the victim was 18 years or older |
Six years after commission of offense |
Bribery of or by a public official |
Six years after commission of offense |
Medical Assistance fraud or theft |
Six years after commission of offense |
Certain thefts, check forgeries, credit card frauds, and financial exploitation of vulnerable adults (where value of property or services stolen exceeds $35,000) |
Five years after commission of offense |
Hazardous and infectious waste crimes, except violations relating to false material statements, representations, or omissions |
Five years after commission of offense |
Arson in the first, second, or third degree |
Five years after commission of offense |
All other crimes |
Three years after commission of offense |
The limitations periods contained in the above section are suspended during the following:
- Any period of time during which the defendant was not an inhabitant of or usually a resident within Minnesota.
- Shall not include any period during which the alleged offender participated under a written agreement in a pretrial diversion program relating to that offense.
- Shall not include any period of time during which physical evidence relation to the offense was undergoing DNA analysis, unless the defendant demonstrates that the prosecuting or law enforcement agency purposefully delayed the DNA analysis process in order to gain an unfair advantage.[1]
How does “Statute of Limitations” Apply?
The general rule is that statute of limitations begins to run when a crime is complete.[2] Some courts have recognized the period of limitation does not begin to run until after the defendant’s activities end, when an offense is a continuing one.
The court’s decision in Toussie v. United States was articulated by two factors in analyzing whether an offense should be considered a continuing violation. First, a statute of limitations should be liberally interpreted in favor of closure for an accused.[3] Second, the court stated that where a criminal statute of limitation prescribes a specific limitations period for particular crimes, the particular offense should not be considered a continuing one “unless the explicit language of the substantive criminal statute compels such a conclusion, or the nature of the crime involved is such that Congress must assuredly have intended that it be treated as a continuing one.”[4]
[1] Minn. Stat. § 628.26
[2] See Toussie v. United States, 397 U.S. 112, 115 (1970) (citing Pendergast v. United States, 317 U.S. 412, 418 (1943)
[3] Toussie, 397 U.S. at 115
[4] Id.