Jun 30, 2009 4:35 pm US/Eastern
Rape Victim Speaks Out To Change State Law
BOSTON (WBZ) ―
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Liz Holmes is trying to abolish a time limit rape victims have to report a sexual assault.
WBZ
It's a crime that happened almost 20 years ago. But it could change laws in this state forever. At just 16 years old, Liz Holmes was raped. But when she finally found the courage to tell police, it was too late.
Holmes brought her story to Beacon Hill to make sure no other teenager shares her nightmare.
Sitting in front of the powerful Judiciary committee Holmes read, "I truly believe our laws are changed by people seeing something that needs changing....getting our elected officials involved and making society safer."
Liz Holmes, a 34-year-old mother from Abington, wants a safer world.
She didn't want to be the State House Tuesday.
But her life has been changed forever, and now she is fighting to abolish the statute of limitations for cases involving child rape.
As Holmes first told WBZ in April, she was 16, a cheerleader at Abington high school when she was raped while cutting thru a local cemetery in 1990. While she was hospitalized, frightened and scared, she waited too many years to report the crime and lost her chance bring the rapist to justice. So today he is still out there.
Holmes told the committee "murder has no statute of limitations...rape needs to be the same…a piece of me was murdered on that day and I know all other victims would agree."
State Sen. Michael Morrissey helped arrange for Holmes to testify in front of the powerful Judiciary committee.
"Someone has gotten away with a vicious crime. If we could catch them now and make them pay... to me it would not matter how many years it took to catch that individual. So it is really a matter of good public policy."
When Holmes finished her testimony there was applause.
Chief Correspondent Joe Shortsleeve asked her, "As a mother of three did you ever think you would up here trying to change the laws?"
Holmes responsed, "No, and my mother said that same thing to me today, but it is such a part of me now."
When Holmes was raped she had 15 years to report the crime. She missed that deadline by a couple of years. She still could have had her day in court if her evidence had been preserved, but that too was lost.
Today young victims have 27 years to report rape. If this bill becomes law there would be no time limit. The bill is expected to be voted on in the fall.
(© MMIX, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)
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