A freshman lawmaker wants to crack down on cases of rape and domestic abuse in Ohio.
State Rep. Greta Johnson of the Akron area says her bill would get rid of the statute of limitations altogether for rape crimes. It would also make all spousal rape and sexual battery illegal.
Johnson, a former prosecutor, says there’s only one way to describe rape.
“It is a murder of the soul. It is something that every victim defines their life in as everything that happened before and everything that happens after,” Johnson said.
There’s a Republican-backed Senate bill that would lengthen the statute of limitations on rape cases from 20 years to 25 years. But Johnson says that’s not good enough.