Child molestation accusations, on the other hand? Not a breach of their “character” clause, it seems.

And that may be why he finds himself in this postion, the alleged victims saw the article in the paper and were disgusted and decided it was time.

But I have to hope you really knew that’s what I was getting at anyway. Otherwise, I’ve misjudged your intelligence pretty severely.

These now adults came forward after Mr.Conlins wife recently passed. Since one of the accusers is a relative, she is naturally concerned that if left unattended with his grandchildren this travesty could take place again.

Interestingly enough, Conlin wrote a very powerful article recently blasting all of the cowards who knew of the Penn State scandal and did nothing about it.

When I’m King of The World Bill, child molesters will hang for their atrocious crimes.

Are you arguing for no SOLs?

Murder has no SOL in some states but at least with murder there is evidence in the form of a dead body (usually). The corpse is evidence of a crime and doesn’t depend on the word of a victim.

When I worked with lawyers and prosecutors, there were times when they knew guilty people got away with things because the charges could not be proven. That’s the system our country was founded on. It’s not perfect but it’s better than any system that involves human beings. SOLs are there for a reason and while they may not apply to murder the standard for conviction is the same.

Calcaterra is an actual lawyer and can give a much better answer, but the basic answer is we have statutes of limitations primarily to ensure cases are handled in a timely manner. A defendant has a right to a speedy trial for many reasons. Among those reasons is evidence becomes less reliable with time, memories fade or get corrupted by other memories, potential alibi witnesses die or without knowing a case may be in the offing that particular memory is lost. Different offenses have different statutes of limitations. As far as I know, murder is the only offense with such limitation. An argument could be made that the same reasons for such limitations apply equally or more to murder. While the awful nature of crimes against children might lead us to believe those crimes should not have a statute of limitations, the very thing that makes them awful (the age and innocence of the victims) also makes them unreliable witnesses particularly once considerable time has passed. In a case like this, he will get his punishment (or his redemption) in the next world.

I wouldn’t keep Conlin out of the non-existant writer’s HOF if he’d ever taken amphetamines to meet his deadlines, no. On the other hand, if Barry Bonds had molested children as opposed to hitting baseballs in a morally unsound manner, then no, I probably wouldn’t want him in the HOF.

But please, continue to equate cheating at sports to molesting children. That’s a winning argument, and classy to boot.

Bill, when I’m king of the world, there will be no statue of limitations…..

I coached my girlfriend’s softball team 36 years ago when I was in college and coached my kid’s teams in the last 20 years. How would one go about defending themselves when I know I was never alone with any of their teammates but can’t prove it? Evidence usually amounts to numerous charges from multiple victims but always ends with damage to one’s reputation, innocent or not. I remember the charges of child molestation that never happened at day care centers in the 1980s as well as the Duke lacrosse case. When charges go back decades it is even more important to wait for the evidence.

Can somebody, ANYBODY explain one thing to me?

Why the F*** do we have a statute of limitations on molesting children????!!!!