Track

Status

Governing provision

Only two offenses have no limitation period, and neither is a sexual offense — § 2901.13(A)(2): “There is no period of limitation for the prosecution of a violation of section 2903.01 or 2903.02 of the Revised Code or for the prosecution of a conspiracy to commit, attempt to commit, or complicity in committing a violation of section 2903.01 or 2903.02 of the Revised Code.” Section 2903.01 is aggravated murder; 2903.02 is murder. 

Rape and sexual battery get twenty-five years — § 2901.13(A)(4): “Except as otherwise provided in divisions (D) to (L) of this section, a prosecution of a violation of section 2907.02 or 2907.03 of the Revised Code or a conspiracy to commit, attempt to commit, or complicity in committing a violation of either section shall be barred unless it is commenced within twenty-five years after the offense is committed.” Section 2907.02 is rape; 2907.03 is sexual battery. 

Twenty years for the next tier — § 2901.13(A)(3)(a) names, among others, § 2907.04 (unlawful sexual conduct with a minor), § 2907.05 (gross sexual imposition), § 2907.21 (compelling prostitution) and § 2905.32 (trafficking in persons). 

Six years for everything else — § 2901.13(A)(1)(a): “For a felony, six years”; (b) two years for a misdemeanor other than a minor misdemeanor; (c) six months for a minor misdemeanor. 

The clock does not start until majority or a report — § 2901.13(J): the period for a Title XXIX violation “that involves a physical or mental wound, injury, disability, or condition of a nature that reasonably indicates abuse or neglect of a child under eighteen years of age or of a child with a developmental disability or physical impairment under twenty-one years of age shall not begin to run until either of the following occurs: (1) The victim of the offense reaches the age of majority. (2) A public children services agency, or a municipal or county peace officer that is not the parent or guardian of the child, in the county in which the child resides or in which the abuse or neglect is occurring or has occurred has been notified that abuse or neglect is known, suspected, or believed to have occurred.” Note that a childhood report by a mandated reporter starts the twenty-five years running while the survivor is still a child. 

DNA extends but does not remove — § 2901.13(D)(1): where a DNA match to an identifiable person is made more than twenty-five years after a § 2907.02 or § 2907.03 offense, prosecution may be commenced within five years of the determination; (D)(2) gives the longer of twenty-five years or five years from the determination where the match is made inside the period. 

Corpus delicti and avoidance — § 2901.13(G): the period does not run while the corpus delicti remains undiscovered. (H): it does not run during any time the accused purposely avoids prosecution. 

Why the status is “Deadline applies” rather than the tracker’s “Partly removed”: “Partly removed” should mean that at least one childhood sexual offense can be prosecuted at any time. In Ohio none can. The unlimited category in § 2901.13(A)(2) contains aggravated murder and murder and nothing else. Rape — the most serious sexual offense in the code — has a hard twenty-five-year period, generous by comparison with most states but a period all the same.

Ohio Rev. Code § 2901.13 — Ohio Laws and Administrative Rules, official Revised Code

Twelve years from majority — § 2305.111(C)(1): an action for assault or battery brought by a victim of childhood sexual abuse, or any claim resulting from childhood sexual abuse, “shall be brought within twelve years after the cause of action accrues.” § 2305.111(C)(3): “a cause of action for assault or battery based on childhood sexual abuse, or a cause of action for a claim resulting from childhood sexual abuse, accrues upon the date on which the victim reaches the age of majority.” The deadline is the survivor’s thirtieth birthday. 

Fraudulent concealment tolls it — § 2305.111(C)(1), second sentence: where the defendant in a claim resulting from childhood sexual abuse occurring on or after 3 August 2006 “has fraudulently concealed from the plaintiff facts that form the basis of the claim, the running of the limitations period with regard to that claim is tolled until the time when the plaintiff discovers or in the exercise of due diligence should have discovered those facts.” 

The definition is narrow, and it is the part that changed in 2025. § 2305.111(A)(1)(a) covers any violation of § 2907.02 (rape) or § 2907.03 (sexual battery). § 2305.111(A)(1)(b) covers § 2907.05 (gross sexual imposition) and § 2907.06 (sexual imposition) only in nine listed relationships: natural, adoptive or step-parent, guardian, custodian or person in loco parentis; custody of law or hospital or institution with supervisory authority; a teacher, administrator, coach or other person in authority at a school; the same at an institution of higher education; a coach, instructor, scouting troop leader or person with temporary or occasional disciplinary control; a mental health professional inducing submission by false representation; a licensed medical professional where the contact occurs in the course of medical treatment; a detention facility employee; and a cleric where the victim is a member of or attends the congregation. 

S.B. 109 widened that list, not the clock. Comparing the section as it stood under H.B. 35 with the version effective 21 March 2025: subparagraph (a) now covers the whole of § 2907.03 rather than nine enumerated divisions of it, a new limb (b)(vii) was added for licensed medical professionals, and definitions of “licensed medical professional” were inserted. The twelve-year period and the accrual-at-majority rule are unchanged. 

No conviction is required — § 2305.111(A)(1): “The court need not find that any person has been convicted of or pleaded guilty to the offense under the specified section of the Revised Code in order for the conduct that is the violation constituting the offense to be childhood sexual abuse for purposes of this division.” 

The general rule this displaces — § 2305.111(B): an action for assault or battery must otherwise be brought within one year of accrual, and where the plaintiff did not know the identity of the assailant, accrual runs from the earlier of learning that identity or when reasonable diligence should have revealed it. 

What distinguishes Ohio is the definition rather than the period: gross sexual imposition and sexual imposition are within § 2305.111 only where one of the nine listed relationships existed. Abuse by a neighbor, a family friend or an older peer that would be prosecuted under § 2907.05 falls outside § 2305.111 entirely and runs on the one-year assault period in subsection (B).

Ohio Rev. Code § 2305.111 — Ohio Laws and Administrative Rules, official Revised Code

The window — § 2305.111(C)(2): “Only for purposes of making claims against a bankruptcy estate of an organization chartered under part B of subtitle II of Title 36 of the United States Code, an action for assault or battery brought by a victim of childhood sexual abuse based on childhood sexual abuse, or an action brought by a victim of childhood sexual abuse asserting any claim resulting from childhood sexual abuse, may be brought at any time after the cause of action accrues.” 

The window reaches one organization, and the drafting says so by indirection. The Act’s own title describes it as eliminating the limitations period “only for purposes of filing claims against a bankruptcy estate of an organization chartered under federal law”, and § 6 names it the Scout’s Honor Law. Part B of subtitle II of Title 36 of the United States Code is the federal charter provision. A claim against any other defendant, however similar the facts, is outside subsection (C)(2) and runs on the twelve-year rule. 

It closes by a delayed repeal written into the same Act. 2023 H.B. 35, § 3 re-enacts § 2305.111 in a form from which subsection (C)(2) is absent; § 4 repeals the version containing it; and § 5 provides: “Sections 3 and 4 of this act take effect five years after the effective date of section 2305.111 of the Revised Code, as amended by Section 1 of this act.” 

The dates are now exact rather than estimated. The Ohio Revised Code service prints the version history of § 2305.111, which records an effective date of 12 October 2023 for the H.B. 35 version and a future effective date of 12 October 2028 attributed to S.B. 109. The window therefore opened on 12 October 2023 and closes on 12 October 2028. The tracker carries this as “~12 Oct 2028 (5 yrs after effective)”; the estimate was right and can now be stated as a fact. 

The 2025 amendment did not disturb the repeal, which was the obvious risk. S.B. 109 amended § 2305.111 in March 2025, and an amendment can silently displace a delayed repeal attached to an earlier version of the same section. It did not: the Revised Code service still carries the 12 October 2028 future version, and attributes it to S.B. 109 — meaning the 2025 Act carried the delayed repeal forward rather than overriding it. 

It took effect immediately by emergency declaration — 2023 H.B. 35, § 7: “Section 2305.111 of the Revised Code, as amended by this act, is hereby declared to be an emergency measure necessary for the immediate preservation of the public peace, health, and safety. The reason for such necessity is to ensure the maximum number of individuals receive the maximum amount of each individual’s claim in the bankruptcy settlement.”

Ohio Rev. Code § 2305.111 — Ohio Laws and Administrative Rules, official Revised Code; the version history on that page carries the 12 October 2023 and 12 October 2028 dates