Don’t worry, I am sure I’ll write something to tick you off at some point.

Are the 1987 through 1991 assaults clearly out? The other thing you might look at is the effective date of the statute. I don’t know how Colorado works, but a lot of states make their statutes effective on Jan. 1, July 1 or some other date, unless they are deemed to be an emergency. So, if the charged conucted happened on June 30, 1992 and the SOL ran on June 30, 2002 (under the old 10 yr rule) and the extension of the SOL was passed on May 1, 2002, but effective July 1, 2002, you would fall under Stogner.

You might be able to strike gold by looking at the acts’ effective date. Also, you could dispute when in 1992 the acts occurred. Obviously, a lot of times, the date a crime was committed is not an element of the offense, but here it’s a factual issue.

Anyway, I am sure you’ve thought of all of this crap. I am just a BigLaw transactional lawyer–what do I know?

SPO: The principle in Stogner does apply, but Colorado (like most states) has consistenly applied the concept of ex post facto to bar the reviving of SOLs after expiration. I think Stogner was really an anomaly based on some crazy California judges who decided to ignore a whole lot of precedent. The problem in my particular case is that Colorado has amended the SOL applicable to sexual assaults almost every other year for the last 10 years. First, it was 3 years, then it was 10 years, then it was 10 years past the victim’s 18th birthday, and now there is no SOL. Colorado courts have said once the SOL has run, it’s gone; but there is room for the prosecution to argue that sexual assaults committed as long ago as 1992 still come under the law removing the SOL passed in 2006.

http://www.law.cornell.edu/supct/html/01-1757.ZO.html

My case involves a case recently filed for acts alleged to have occurred in 1987 to 1992, and my client is over 80 years old. A year ago the legislature did away with the SOL in sex assault cases, so defendants are now at risk for a lifetime. I’m trying to convince my judge that the SOL had run prior to the recent amendment and that application of the new SOL would be an ex post facto violation.

Your case law seems like a good example of a bad case making bad law in the appellate context. Colorado’s abolition of the SOL in all sex assault cases is a good example of bad cases making bad policy.