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Extracted Text (OCR)
Case 22-1426, Document 59, 02/28/2023, 3475902, Paged/ of 113
18 U.S.C. § 3283. Congress enacted the predecessor to this provision under the
Crime Control Act of 1990, Pub.L. 101-647, 104 Stat. 4789, and codified it as §
3283 under the Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act of 1994, Pub.L.
103-322, 108 Stat. 1796, commonly known as the “1994 Crime Bill.” As
promulgated in the 1994 Crime Bill, this section provided that the statute of
limitations for an “offense involving the sexual or physical abuse of a child” would
expire once the alleged victim “reaches the age of 25 years.” 108 Stat. 2149. But
it was not until 2003 that Congress amended § 3283 to provide for a limitations
period running for the entire life of the alleged victim. See PROTECT Act, Pub.L.
108-21, § 220, 117 Stat. 650, 660.2 The PROTECT Act was signed into law on
April 30, 2003.
Contrary to what the Government argued below and what the District Court
held, §3283 cannot salvage Counts Three and Four for two separate and
independent reasons. First, §3283 does not extend the statute of limitations for
violations of § 2423(a), or conspiracy to do the same, because the “sexual or
physical abuse...of a child” is not a necessary element of those offenses. Second,
the Government cannot apply the 2003 amendment to § 3283—the statute of
limitations for the lifetime of one’s accuser—to offenses that the Government
alleges were committed before the enactment of this provision. See Landgraf v.
’ Congress amended § 3283 again in 2006. The Government does not contend that
that amendment is relevant here.
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DOJ-OGR-00021104
Extracted Information
Document Details
| Filename | DOJ-OGR-00021104.jpg |
| File Size | 684.6 KB |
| OCR Confidence | 94.0% |
| Has Readable Text | Yes |
| Text Length | 1,615 characters |
| Indexed | 2026-02-03 20:07:15.090772 |