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Case 1:20-cr-00330-PAE Document 204 _ Filed 04/16/21 Page 55 of 239
impermissible retroactive effects.” /d. For the reasons set forth below, the 2003 amendment of
18 U.S.C. § 3283 satisfies both steps of Landgraf, and should be applied to pre-enactment conduct.
1. The 2003 Amendment Satisfies Step One of Landgraf
At step one of the Landgraf analysis, the question is whether Congress has “expressly
prescribed the statute’s proper reach.” Landgraf, 511 U.S. at 280. When evaluating Congress’s
intent at step one of the Landgraf inquiry, the Second Circuit has considered both the text of the
statute and the legislative history. Enterprise, 391 F.3d at 406-08. In this case, the amended
versions of Section 3283 evince Congress’s express intent to extend the statute of limitations. The
text and history of Section 3283 firmly establish that, with each amendment of the statute of
limitations, Congress intended to repeal and replace the prior version of the statute and thereby
extend the time to bring live charges of child sexual abuse.
The 2003 amendment, like the 1994 version of the statute, specifically states that “[n]o
statute of limitations that would otherwise preclude prosecution” of a child sexual offense “shall
preclude” prosecution of such offense during the life of the victim. 18 U.S.C. § 3283 (2003).
Claims that were live in 2003 were, at the time, subject to the then-existing statute of limitations,
which ran until the victims reached the age of 25. Whenever that statute of limitations ran, it would
“otherwise preclude prosecution.” Instead, that statute of limitations was replaced by the 2003
amendment.
The Eighth and Ninth Circuits have both held that Congress intended to extend the statute
of limitations for live claims of sexual abuse. In United States v. Jeffries, 405 F.3d 682 (8" Cir.
2005), the Eighth Circuit reasoned that “both the title and wording of § 3509(k) indicate that
Congress intended by it to extend the general statute of limitations. . . . § 3509(k) was later
recodified at § 3283 and continued to extend the statute of limitations in child abuse cases.” Jd. at
684 (citing United States v. Johns, 15 F.3d 740, 743 (8th Cir. 1994) (holding that an earlier version
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Document Details
| Filename | DOJ-OGR-00002989.jpg |
| File Size | 748.4 KB |
| OCR Confidence | 93.4% |
| Has Readable Text | Yes |
| Text Length | 2,246 characters |
| Indexed | 2026-02-03 16:29:23.876492 |