Overview
- The Legislature approved a $63.4 billion budget that includes a DNA exception to the 15-year statute of limitations for most adult rape cases.
- Governor Maura Healey has pledged to sign the budget and has until July 11 to do so, after which the DNA exception would take effect immediately.
- Under the new rule, prosecutors could file charges at any time when a DNA match links a suspect to an assault discovered after the original 15-year window, while matches made inside that window still require charges to be filed within 15 years.
- Survivor testimony and investigations by WBUR and ProPublica, including a 2005 case where charges were dropped after a late DNA match, drove the push for change and helped break longstanding legislative resistance.
- Defense lawyers have long opposed extending deadlines, arguing longer or retroactive windows risk unfair trials, and the new law could prompt prosecutions of old cases and changes in evidence preservation and cold-case work.