Fans and critics of Bill Cosby are still reeling from the guilty sexual assault verdict delivered on Thursday and since the guilty verdict that came down on April 26, there's been a flurry of tweets with people asking- where were the statues of limitations in this case?
So our team took a look at the laws.
In Pennsylvania, where that guilty verdict came down, that incident was from 2004 and the case was reopened in 2015, happening within the state's 12-year time frame for prosecuting criminal cases.
In California, where Cosby faces more accusations, some of those incidents dating as far back as the 1960s and 1980s, the statute of limitations is only 10 years, so dozens of cases are out.
However, Governor Jerry Brown did drop the statute of limitations for rape in 2016, but it's not retroactive.
So we can verify the statues of limitations in this Cosby sex assault case was followed to the letter of the law.
But remember we're talking criminal cases here. Cosby could still face civil lawsuits from other accusers.
