Statute of Limitations: Difference between revisions

The most common use of the statute of limitations in fiction is for a criminal to be within a very short time of reaching that deadline, and the police desperately trying to find them (or the necessary evidence) before the clock runs out.

 

 

== Anime & Manga ==

* Sometimes invoked on ''[[Cold Case (TV)|Cold Case]]'' as the statute of limitations has expired on some lesser offenses, allowing the suspects to be more honest about what happened involving the murder that's the main focus of the story.

* The detectives of ''[[Law and Order Criminal Intent]]'' are on the trail of a racial-based beating that left the victim mentally handicapped and paralyzed well after the statute of limitations has run out; the district attorney plans to file charges for murder as soon as the victim dies, since there's no statute of limitations for murder.

* An episode of ''[[CSI]]'' revisits a previous case when the rapist who left his victim in a coma goads her husband into taking her off life support. This made the husband responsible for her murder. Had she died of her wounds from the original assault he would have been charged with her murder.

* In one ''[[Mission Impossible]]'' episode, the IMF convince a criminal that he has been in cryogenic suspension for several years and that the statute of limitations on his crimes has expired. Involves a ''double'' [[Faked Rip Van Winkle]].

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[[Category:Crime and Punishment Tropes]]