What is the statute of limitations for a crime under New York law?
Answer
Criminal statutes of limitation (SOL's) exist for the fundamental purpose of protecting the due-process rights of the accused. Hence are they mandated under the 5th and 14th Amendments to the United States Constitution, and under §6 of Article 1 of the New York State Constitution. The founders of this nation further safeguarded the rights of the criminally accused by writing two ex post facto clauses into the U.S. Constitution, in §§9 and 10 of Article I, forbidding, respectively, the federal and all state and local governments from enacting or amending any law in such a way as to: a) criminalize an act that was no crime at the time it was committed, or b) retroactively increase criminal liability--including by extending an SOL that had already expired for a given criminal act. See Charles Doyle, Summary and Introduction to "Statute of Limitation in Federal Criminal Cases: An Overview" (Congressional Research Service [Nov. 14, 2017]); Bobbi Reilly Sheahan, "Statutes of Limitation in Sexual Assault Cases" (FBI Law Enforcement Bulletin [Aug. 11, 2025]).
In his Introduction to the Practice Commentaries on New York's criminal SOL's, codified as §30.10 of the Criminal Procedure Law (McKinney's, 2026), William C. Donnino observes as follows:
"[The SOL's are] designed to set forth a period within which a criminal action accusing a person of the commission of an offense must be commenced.... Some felonies, however, may be prosecuted 'at any time'.... The remaining felonies have fixed limits..., with some exceptions to the length of those limits or when the time begins to run. For all the offenses with fixed limits, there is a provision which tolls the running of the time in certain instances....
"'A statutory limitation on the period within which a criminal action may be commenced for the commission of a crime is not a jurisdictional requirement of a prosecution, and a violation thereof may accordingly be 'forfeited or waived by a defendant.' People v Mills, 1 NY3d 269, 274... (2003).
"The purpose of a Statute of Limitations is to ‘"protect individuals from having to defend themselves against charges when the basic facts may have become obscured by the passage of time"; [to] "minimize the danger of official punishment because of acts in the far-distant past"; and [to] "encourag[e] law enforcement officials promptly to investigate suspected criminal activity".' People v Seda, 93 NY2d 307, 311... (1999), quoting Toussie v United States, 397 US 112, 114-15... (1970)."
Therefore, in order to answer the question, "What is the SOL for a given NY crime?" one first must ask, "What is the alleged date of commission?" For, as Sheahan observes:
"According to the default rule, a criminal defendant is subject to the statute of limitations in force at the time of the alleged offense. However, the inquiry does not end there. The next question is whether the past statute of limitations had already lapsed before the prosecution began. A retroactive change to a criminal statute of limitations after it had already lapsed is impermissible as it would violate the ex post facto clause of the U.S. Constitution" (references omitted).
Once the date of alleged commission is known, step two is to determine what crime the accused may have committed, not under the current New York Penal Law, but under the version of the Penal Law in force on the alleged date of commission.* The third step is to determine the applicable SOL under the version of Criminal Procedure Law §30.10 in force on the alleged date of commission. Ensuing steps may be necessary, depending on the applicability of: a) any SOL extension prior to expiration in the case under analysis; b) the tolling provisions of CPL §30.10(4) (accused perpetrator's out-of-state/unknown whereabouts or prior prosecution); and/or c) special provisions (tolling, age-of-victim, "first report") related to sex offenses.
Finally, note that with respect to sex offenses (as well as other crimes), criminal liability is entirely distinct from civil (tort) liability in that the SOL's for the latter can be extended without running afoul of the U.S. Constitution's ex post facto clauses. See Doe v Wilhelmina Models, Inc., 229 AD3d 128, 142 (1st Dept 2024) ("the [Child Victims Act] does not criminalize conduct that would not previously have been subject to criminal liability, and therefore does not constitute an ex post facto law") (citation omitted).
*Old versions of the Penal Law and other New York statutes are available via Westlaw and other print, microform, and electronic resources available at the Unified Court System's public-access law libraries.