Track

Status

Governing provision

No limitation — prosecution may be commenced at any time, § 13-107(A): any homicide; any conspiracy to commit homicide that results in the death of a person; any offense listed in chapter 14 or chapter 35.1 of title 13 that is a class 2 felony; any violent sexual assault under § 13-1423; any violation of § 13-2308.01, § 13-2308.03 or § 13-3212; any misuse of public monies or felony involving falsification of public records; and any attempt to commit an offense listed in that subsection. 

Seven years — § 13-107(B)(1): a class 2 through class 6 felony. One year — § 13-107(B)(2): a misdemeanor. Six months — § 13-107(B)(3): a petty offense. These periods run from actual discovery by the state or the political subdivision with jurisdiction, or from the discovery that should have occurred with reasonable diligence, whichever occurs first. 

Tolling — § 13-107(D): the period does not run while the accused is absent from the state or has no reasonably ascertainable place of abode within the state. § 13-107(E): for a serious offense as defined in § 13-706, the period does not run while the identity of the person who committed the offense is unknown. 

Refiling — § 13-107(G): if a timely complaint, indictment or information is dismissed for any reason, a new prosecution may be commenced within six months of the dismissal becoming final, even if the period has expired or will expire within those six months. 

Why “partly removed”: chapter 14 covers sexual offenses and chapter 35.1 covers sexual exploitation of children, but § 13-107(A) removes the limitation for those offenses only where the offense is a class 2 felony. A sexual offense against a child charged at a lesser felony class falls to the seven-year period in § 13-107(B)(1), running from discovery.

Ariz. Rev. Stat. § 13-107 — Arizona State Legislature (official ARS text)

Twelve years after the plaintiff reaches 18 — § 12-514(A): notwithstanding §§ 12-505, 12-511 and 12-542, an action for the recovery of damages based on either of the following shall be commenced within twelve years after the plaintiff reaches eighteen years of age and not afterward: (1) an injury a minor suffers as a result of another person’s negligent or intentional act, if that act is a cause of sexual conduct or sexual contact committed against the minor; or (2) the failure to report, under § 13-3620, sexual conduct or sexual contact committed against a minor. 

Definitions — § 12-514(B): “person” includes an individual, the United States, this state, a public or private corporation, a local government unit, a public agency, a partnership, association, firm, trust or estate, or any other legal entity. “Sexual conduct” means sexual conduct as proscribed by § 13-1405. “Sexual contact” has the meaning prescribed in § 13-1401. 

The deadline therefore falls on the plaintiff’s thirtieth birthday. That figure follows directly from the words of § 12-514(A) — twelve years measured from age eighteen — and is not an inference drawn from separate tolling provisions.

Ariz. Rev. Stat. § 12-514 — Arizona State Legislature (official ARS text)

Section 3(B) of the chapter law provided that a cause of action for damages described in § 3(A), paragraph 1, involving sexual conduct or sexual contact, “is revived and may be commenced before December 31, 2020”. 

This revival lives in the session law, not in the code. A.R.S. § 12-514 as codified contains no revival provision, which is why the statutory text alone does not show that Arizona ever opened a window.