For which killings does the public-prosecution limitation period not run at all, and for whom does the ordinary period still apply?
General information · Not legal advice
Material to check
In practice material of this kind, we read the charging paper or judgment for the conduct charged and the offence provision that carries the death penalty for it, and the record of the role of each person charged, since the provision reaches a crime of killing a person and leaves out secondary participation.
These are types of material to look for, not evidence already verified by PRO SE.
Where readings differ
One reading takes the exclusion at its word: where a crime of killing a person corresponds to a crime punishable by death, the limitation periods laid down in the ordinary public-prosecution limitation provisions are not applied at all, so no period begins to run, none can run out, and the passage of time defeats no prosecution of the killing itself.
Another reading marks who is left outside it: the provision expressly excludes secondary participation, so a person charged only as an accessory falls outside the exclusion and the ordinary limitation provisions continue to apply to that charge, which brings back the question of the starting event and the length of the period for that person.
Your judgment
When the record shows one person charged with the killing and another charged with aiding it, what facts establish each person's role for this exclusion?
PRO SE does not make this decision or keep a case record on this public site.When to reconsider
We look at this again if the provision is amended to reach secondary participation or other offences, or if a court decides how it applies to crimes committed before the date on which it takes effect.