Wendy Davis Proposes Ending Statute Of Limitations For Sexual Assault And Battery

Wendy Davis, Democratic gubernatorial candidate, delivers a statement Tuesday, Aug. 19, 2014, at the Odessa Crisis Center in Odessa, Texas, regarding her record defending victims of sexual assault. (AP Photo/The Odes... Wendy Davis, Democratic gubernatorial candidate, delivers a statement Tuesday, Aug. 19, 2014, at the Odessa Crisis Center in Odessa, Texas, regarding her record defending victims of sexual assault. (AP Photo/The Odessa American, Courtney Sacco) MORE LESS
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Texas Democratic gubernatorial candidate Wendy Davis on Wednesday proposed ending the statute of limitations on sexual assault in Texas.

The proposal is part of Davis’s newly launched attack line against Attorney General Greg Abbott, the Republican nominee in the race, as someone who has been less than helpful to rape victims. Davis recently released an aggressive attack ad criticizing Abbott for siding against a rape victim in a liability case while Abbott was on the Texas Supreme Court.

Davis announced her new proposal at a news conference in Dallas, Texas, according to The Houston Chronicle.

“While the bills I authored are helping to address the backlog of rape kits, the fact that we would throw survivors’ trauma and courage on a shelf for months or years without a second thought is offensive to them and to everything we say we stand for,” Davis said. “But then to turn around and make survivors pay the price for our failure and neglect by denying them justice is almost criminal in itself.”

For most cases in Texas, state law prohibits someone from being prosecuted for sexual assault that happened over a decade ago, according to the Chronicle. Davis, when she announced her proposal, listed a number of cases where someone wasn’t prosecuted because the statute of limitations ran out.

The TPM Polltracker average gives Abbott an 8 point lead over Davis.

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