Purpose of “Statute of Limitations”

Eye witnesses are notoriously undependable to start with...after decades, they become even less dependable. Over time, people pass away and forget facts, so trials become damn unfair. That is what was explained to me...

To avoid problems with finding evidence in really old cases. Also prevents someone from holding on to an accusation for the only reason of blackmailing another, but that's really minor and not really why the Statue of Limitations exists. Doesn't always work out how it should, but that's the law for you.

Not all cases have statutes of limitations, such as murder, sex crimes against children, etc. Super heinous ones usually don't in most jurisdictions. The reasoning for lesser crimes, aside from the aforementioned fading of evidence, is really a practical standpoint. Would you rather the going rate of prosecution be for first in line kind of thing which it would become? I commit a DWI today and know the backlog is so great that they are still prosecuting DWIs from the 80's and it will be another 30 years before they likely get to me? DAs would have an ever increasing log of prosecution which is already severely undermanned and long enough. At some point focus needs to be more on immediate enforcement.

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 If someone commits a crime there should be no time limit on prosecuting that person. Does anyone have a justification for this law?

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Not everyone who is accused of a crime is guilty of a crime. This law protects access to Witnesses and evidence and prevents the conviction of somebody due to poor memories.

FWIW there is no SOL in Louisana for murder or Aggravated Rape. And other sex crimes have extremely long time limits. I think it’s 30 years after the accuser turns 18.

Getting a fair trial is already hard enough in some of these cases. DNA is not available in most cases. CSI is not real life.

It encourages people to come forward within a prescribed time. It's generally a pretty sound public policy with some exceptions.

I believe it's "Statue of Limitations".....

Most of the common reasons have already been stated, but one other that is often overlooked is just a matter of resources. Do you want your tax dollars spent prosecuting cases that may be decades old with little value to society other than retribution, or do you want to prosecute more recent crimes for the deterrent effect? Most people would say the latter.