California, United States of America
The following excerpt is from People v. Podgurski, D064114 (Cal. App. 2015):
When a charging document suggests or "indicates on its face that the action is time-barred, a person convicted of a charged offense may raise the statute of limitations at any time," including on appeal. (See People v. Williams (1999) 21 Cal.4th 335, 341.) Thereafter, if the record establishes that the action is not time-barred, the conviction may stand; if, however, the appellate court cannot determine from the record whether the action is time-barred, it should remand for a further hearing. (Id. at pp. 341, 345-346.) We conclude the matter should be remanded.
We reiterate that we do not decide in this case (i) when the prosecution commenced under section 804 on counts 1-3 (i.e., on May 26, 2010, on September 14, 2012 or perhaps some other date) and (ii) depending on the resolution of that issue, whether counts 1-3 are time-barred by the four-year limitations period set forth in section 801.5. These matters are better left to the trial court to decide after a hearing. (See People v. Williams, supra, 21 Cal.4th at p. 345 [noting the "silent record" such as in the instant case regarding the statute of limitations defense "is partly the defendant's fault for not raising the issue at trial," but is also "the prosecution's fault in the first instance for filing an information that, on its face, was [perhaps] untimely," and thus noting in this situation the "the fairest solution is to remand the matter to determine whether the action is, in fact, timely"].)
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D. Sufficiency of the Evidence (Count 5)
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