Opinion ID: 846980
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: continuing violations are disfavored

Text: Statutes of limitations serve important purposes in our criminal justice system. Not only do they protect defendants from having to defend against stale claims, they pressure law enforcement officials to act promptly. The public is served by them in that wrongdoers are brought to justice more quickly. Also, an accused is less likely to be deprived of evidence or witnesses lost through the passage of time. It is apparent that statutes of limitations find their base in equitable concerns. This fact has led the United States Supreme Court to direct that criminal limitations statutes be liberally interpreted in favor of repose[.] United States v. Habig, 390 U.S. 222, 227, 88 S.Ct. 926, 19 L.Ed.2d 1055 (1968), quoting United States v. Scharton, 285 U.S. 518, 522, 52 S.Ct. 416, 76 L.Ed. 917 (1932) (internal quotation marks omitted). In Toussie v. United States , [2] the Supreme Court recognized that the doctrine of continuing offenses could contradict the very goals and purposes of statutes of limitations. The tension between the two is clear. Limitation statutes restrict an accused's exposure to legal proceedings. A continuing violation perpetuates it, decreeing that each day an accused does not eliminate his violation of a statute, he violates it again. Toussie v. United States, 397 U.S. 112, 114-115, 90 S.Ct. 858, 25 L.Ed.2d 156 (1970). Courts should not resolve this tension by never viewing an offense as a continuing violation. Rather, they must exercise particular diligence before deciding that the intent of the legislature was that an offense constitutes a continuing violation. The Supreme Court gave us this guidance in Toussie: [A conclusion that a violation is a continuing violation should not be made] unless the explicit language of the substantive criminal statute compels such a conclusion, or the nature of the crime involved is such that Congress must assuredly have intended that it be treated as a continuing one. [ Id. at 115, 90 S.Ct. 858.]