The criminal statute of limitations sets the deadline for the government to bring charges against you, and it depends entirely on the crime and the jurisdiction. Most federal offenses carry a five-year deadline. State deadlines range from about a year for minor misdemeanors to no limit at all for murder and, in some places, any felony. Serious federal crimes punishable by death have no deadline either. Once the applicable window closes without a formal charge, the case is time-barred, but several rules can pause or reset the countdown before it runs out.
The Five-Year Federal Default
For federal crimes, the baseline is five years from the date the offense is committed. Under 18 U.S.C. § 3282, the government must file an indictment or information within five years for any federal crime that is not punishable by death and does not have its own specific deadline written into another statute.1Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 18 USC 3282 – Offenses Not Capital If that window closes without a charge, the prosecution is barred.
Five years covers a wide range of federal crimes, from drug possession to immigration fraud to most types of identity theft. The default only applies, though, when no other statute says otherwise, and Congress has written a lot of exceptions.
Federal Crimes With Different Deadlines
Tax crimes run on their own schedule. Under 26 U.S.C. § 6531, most criminal violations of the Internal Revenue Code must be charged within three years. The deadline jumps to six years for the offenses prosecutors care about most: tax evasion, filing fraudulent returns, willfully failing to pay taxes, and conspiring to defeat a tax obligation. Time spent outside the country or as a fugitive does not count toward either deadline.2Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 26 USC 6531 – Periods of Limitation on Criminal Prosecutions
Financial institution crimes carry a ten-year window. Under 18 U.S.C. § 3293, bank fraud and mail or wire fraud targeting a financial institution can be prosecuted up to a decade after the offense.3Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 18 USC 3293 – Financial Institution Offenses
Non-capital terrorism offenses carry an eight-year deadline under 18 U.S.C. § 3286.4Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 18 USC 3286 – Extension of Statute of Limitation for Certain Terrorism Offenses Theft of major artwork gets twenty years under 18 U.S.C. § 3294.5Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 18 USC 3294 – Theft of Major Artwork
Crimes against children get the longest windows of any category with a fixed limit. Under 18 U.S.C. § 3283, offenses involving the sexual or physical abuse, or kidnapping, of a child under 18 can be prosecuted during the child’s lifetime or for ten years after the offense, whichever is longer.6Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 18 USC 3283 – Offenses Against Children In practice, that means decades.
Crimes With No Deadline at All
Some offenses can be charged at any point, no matter how much time has passed. Under 18 U.S.C. § 3281, any federal crime punishable by death has no statute of limitations.7Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 18 USC 3281 – Capital Offenses That covers offenses like treason, genocide, and certain acts of terrorism that result in death.8United States Department of Justice. Sentencing
At the state level, virtually every jurisdiction treats murder the same way. Many states have also eliminated deadlines for serious sexual offenses, particularly those involving children.9Congressional Research Service. Statute of Limitation in Federal Criminal Cases – An Overview Several states go further and impose no deadline for any felony. The trend in recent decades has been to expand these categories, not shrink them.
How State Deadlines Work
Every state runs its own schedule of prosecution deadlines, separate from the federal system. Those schedules generally tie the length of the window to the seriousness of the charge.
Misdemeanors, typically punishable by less than a year of jail time, usually carry a window of one to two years. Felonies follow a tiered structure that varies significantly by state. A lower-level felony might have a three-year deadline, while a more serious felony involving violence or major property damage can extend to six years or more.
The practical effect is a patchwork. Identical conduct can be time-barred in one state and still prosecutable in another. Anyone worried about older conduct needs to check the specific deadline in the state where the alleged offense happened rather than rely on a general rule.
When the Clock Starts Running
For most crimes, the statute of limitations begins on the date the offense is committed. A bank robbery on March 1 starts a five-year federal countdown on March 1. Two exceptions catch people off guard.
The continuing offense doctrine applies to crimes that unfold over time rather than in a single act. Ongoing conspiracies, embezzlement schemes, and racketeering operations count as continuing offenses, so the clock does not start until the last criminal act in the series. A fraud scheme running from 2020 through 2025 starts its limitations period in 2025.
The discovery rule can apply to crimes involving concealment. When a perpetrator actively hides the wrongdoing through deceptive bookkeeping or sham transactions, the clock may not start until the offense is discovered or should reasonably have been discovered. This is common with financial crimes.
What Pauses the Clock
Even while a deadline is running, certain events freeze it through a process called tolling. Time that passes during a tolling period does not count.
Fleeing from justice is the classic trigger. Under 18 U.S.C. § 3290, anyone who flees to avoid prosecution gets no benefit from the passage of time.10Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 18 USC 3290 – Fugitives From Justice Physical absence from the jurisdiction is not required. Actively hiding from law enforcement within the same area can be enough.11United States Department of Justice. Criminal Resource Manual 657 – Tolling of Statute of Limitations The clock stops until the person is found or stops evading.
Federal prosecutors chasing evidence abroad get extra room under 18 U.S.C. § 3292. When evidence is located in a foreign country, the government can ask a district court to suspend the statute of limitations while awaiting a response to a formal request for that evidence. The court must find that the request was made and that the evidence reasonably appears to be in the foreign country. The total suspension across all requests cannot exceed three years.12Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 18 USC 3292 – Suspension of Limitations to Permit United States to Obtain Foreign Evidence
Wartime creates another tolling scenario. Under 18 U.S.C. § 3287, the statute of limitations for fraud against the United States and for offenses connected to military contracts or government property is suspended during wartime or a congressional authorization for the use of armed forces. The suspension lasts until five years after hostilities end.13Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 18 USC 3287 – Wartime Suspension of Limitations
DNA evidence has created a modern exception for cold cases. Under 18 U.S.C. § 3297, when DNA testing implicates an identified person in a felony, the normal statute of limitations is effectively reset. The person gets a fresh limitations period of the same length, starting from the date of the DNA identification.14Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 18 USC 3297 – Cases Involving DNA Evidence
What Filing on Time Actually Means
The statute of limitations requires the government to start prosecution within the deadline, not finish the trial. The clock stops the moment the government takes the right formal step. Everything after that is just the case working through the system.
In federal court, that step is filing an indictment or an information. An indictment is a charge approved by a grand jury; an information is a charge filed directly by the prosecutor. Federal Rule of Criminal Procedure 7 requires either document to clearly describe the offense and be signed by a government attorney.15Legal Information Institute. Federal Rules of Criminal Procedure Rule 7 – The Indictment and the Information If the filing lands one day before the deadline expires, the case is timely. The trial itself can stretch months or years beyond the limitations period.
Sealed indictments complicate the picture. Federal rules allow a judge to seal an indictment until the defendant is arrested, and federal courts disagree about whether a sealed indictment counts as “found” on the date the grand jury returns it or only when it is unsealed.9Congressional Research Service. Statute of Limitation in Federal Criminal Cases – An Overview The legal footing of a sealed indictment returned near the deadline can be uncertain.
If an indictment is dismissed on procedural grounds after the deadline has already passed, the government has a six-month window to refile under 18 U.S.C. § 3288, with a similar cushion under § 3289 when a dismissal happens with less than six months left.16GovInfo. 18 USC 3288 – Indictments and Information Dismissed After Period of Limitations So a dismissal near the deadline is not necessarily the end of the road.
You Have to Raise the Defense Yourself
The statute of limitations is an affirmative defense. It does not apply automatically. The defendant has to raise it. Someone who pleads guilty without explicitly preserving the issue waives the right to argue it later.17United States Department of Justice. Criminal Resource Manual 656 – Waiver of the Statute of Limitations Courts have held that a knowing and voluntary waiver is valid, though appellate courts disagree about the outer limits.
This is where straightforward cases fall apart. A defendant whose charges are clearly time-barred can still be convicted if no one raises it. The judge will not do it for them. If you are facing charges over conduct from years ago, verify the applicable deadline before making any plea decisions that could forfeit the defense.