I emailed
all of the members of the Judiciary Committee today:
On June 30, 2009 I testified before your Committee on behalf
of House Bill 1523, filed by Representative Ronald Mariano. This bill would repeal the statute of limitations for cases
of childhood sexual abuse. The Executive Session to determine the life of House Bill 1523 should be held soon. As
a result, I wanted to contact the Committee in an effort to urge you to pass this bill along in the legislative process.
I plan on following up with a hard copy of this letter, as well as posting it to my web page.
I am a survivor of a brutal rape at the hands of a stranger when I was just sixteen years old. My rapist invaded my
body and then he was gone. My sense of self, safety and security was completely destroyed. Even though the imminent
threat of "him" fades, he still managed to invade my thoughts and my mind. I walked around for many years
a prisoner in my own mind. The effects this rape had on me physically and emotionally were too much for my brain to
process and I had to live in avoidance for years in order to function in life. It is not the attacker that has the long-term
hold over a survivor of rape - it is the aftermath the event leaves in its wake and the ripples it sends throughout your life
and the lives of your loved ones.
Our laws simply cannot continue to tell our children that when
they do find the superhuman strength to come forward to try and confront their rape, "sorry, but it's too late".
And now you have to live with the fact that had you come forward earlier, you could have removed a rapist from the streets.
With the advancements made with DNA and the mere existence of the COTIS system, there is reality to
identifying a stranger rapist many years from the date of the crime, as well as generating cold hits. It is unjust not
to be able to prosecute solely because the statute of limitations has elapsed. Closing the door on a victim who is trying
to report a crime has been committed against them is simultaneously allowing a rapist back on the streets of the Commonwealth.
We group rapists and murderers together in our prisons and refer to them in the same category of conversation.
Murder has no statute of limitations. Rape needs to be the same. A piece of me was murdered on that day and I
know all other victims would agree.
I have been on television and in the newspapers. I have thousands
of followers on my web page,
www.voicebychoice.org, from all around the US as well as overseas. I will produce signatures if that is what you need to see.
I personally think you need to stop wasting our tax dollars trying to argue a point that does not exist and abolish the statute
of limitations on reporting the crime of rape of minors. The majority of the Commonwealth believes the statute needs
to go and our laws need to start reflecting what society wants.
I will continue to push this
issue in any way I can. I know this is the right thing, not only for survivors of rape, but for our society as a whole.
We all benefit from removing rapists from the streets.
Thank you in advance,
Elizabeth Holmes
