COLUMBUS, Ohio (WCMH) -- This week, two state senators, one Republican and one Democrat, introduced legislation to extend the amount of time a survivor of sexual assault has to sue their attacker in civil court.
Senate Bill 421, sponsored by Senate Minority Leader Nickie Antonio (D-Lakewood) and Sen. Nathan Manning (R-North Ridgeville) would extend Ohio's civil statute of limitations from one year to five.
Antonio said she was surprised to learn Ohio's statute of limitations is so short, surprise echoed during her testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee on Wednesday by Sen. Louis Blessing III (R-Colerain Twp).
"I have to ask a painful question with this, I mean, are we the worst in the country at one year?" Blessing said.
According to Antonio, Ohio is "one of the worst."
"Across the country, Tennessee and Ohio are the two states that only have one year after a crime has been committed for a civil case to be brought forward by a survivor," Antonio said. "Louisiana maintains a two-year period. Mississippi allows three years. Texas actually allows five years and Michigan extends up to ten years. Words I never thought I'd say: we need to be like Texas."
Antonio said survivors of sexual assault often need more than just a single year, not only to recover from such a traumatic experience but also to determine whether they want to face the challenges of seeking justice.
"There's a lot of denial that goes into even realizing and coming to terms with the fact that one has been assaulted. Sometimes that takes a lot of time," Antonio said. "There's the element of fear. Fear of retribution, fear of other consequences coming."
Manning, an attorney and former prosecutor, noted that it can sometimes be less daunting for survivors to bring cases in civil court rather than criminal court.
"It is a much higher standard for criminal, beyond a reasonable doubt. This is a lower standard of preponderance of evidence," Manning said. "Sometimes prosecutors unfortunately can't bring cases because the evidence maybe isn't there to prove beyond all reasonable doubt, but you can bring it as an individual because of that lower standard there."
While criminal courts can provide survivors with restitution, Manning said, "Sometimes restitution doesn't amount to mental distress and other things that come with sexual assault, so I think it's really important to help make that individual as whole as possible through the civil side."
In her testimony Wednesday, Antonio cited U.S. Department of Justice data estimating that a sexual assault occurs every 68 seconds in the United States, with nearly 80 percent of those assaults going unreported. Manning and Antonio both said they hope extending the statute of limitations will make more survivors feel comfortable coming forward, and more perpetrators will be held accountable. They noted that in the past, prominent national figures have been held accountable for their behavior through civil rather than criminal action.
"We saw it in the OJ Simpson murder trial," Manning said. "He was found not guilty on the criminal side, but civilly liable because it's a lower standard."
"We're seeing congressional members leave, lose their seats right now on the national scene and being held accountable for their behavior," Antonio said. "We have a president where civil suits as well as criminal suits were brought forward. There is now a record."