ANNAPOLIS — A bill that would have ended the statute of limitations on child abuse claims in Maryland has died in a State Senate committee.
Last month, House Bill 687 passed in the House of Delegates, by a vote of 135 to three.
On Wednesday, the Senate Judicial Proceedings Committee held a vote on the bill, and it wound up tied - five votes to five - effectively killing the bill for 2019.
Delegate CT Wilson of Prince George’s County, a survivor of child sexual abuse, is the sponsor of the bill.
“The pedophiles may have won the day,” he said. “But they are not going to win the war.”
After a recent change in Maryland law, survivors have until they are 38 years old to file a lawsuit. Supporters of HB 687 say that doesn’t go far enough.
"I'm disappointed in the vote,” Del. Wilson said. “Especially in light of all the inane and hyperbolic questions raised by Senators in the Judicial Proceedings Committee, questions that could have been answered by the legal experts I had flown in from around the country, had they chosen to ask.
“I think it's a cowardly act. I'm going to keep fighting for these victims,” he said. “To be dismissed summarily over some made up constitutional issues, it is appalling. It is infuriating.”
Delegate Wilson is planning to re-introduce his bill in the 2020 legislative session. “I am exhausted, but in nine months I will have the energy to fight again,” he said.
