Maryland lawmakers approved a bill that would eliminate the statute of limitations for victims of child sexual abuse less than an hour after the release of an investigative report detailing decades of abuse within Maryland churches.
The final 42-4 Senate vote means Charles County Democratic Del. C.T. Wilson’s bill will soon be heading to the desk of Gov. Wes Moore, who has said he would sign it into law.
The vote came under special circumstances, with lawmakers suspending the rules so they could fast-track the bill on the significant day.
Sen. Will Smith, the Montgomery County Democrat who chairs the Judicial Proceedings Committee, stood and requested the body suspend Rule 24, which requires every bill be read on three different days. The move ensured that it was Wilson — a survivor of childhood abuse who has pushed the legislation for years — whose bill won approval from both chambers first.
The bill will lift age limits and time limits for filing civil lawsuits against institutions, including churches and schools, where an individual suffered sexual abuse as a child. The bill also nullifies a legal protection called a “statute of repose,” which could have insulated institutions from older claims.
Wilson said he thought it was “more than serendipity” that his bill was poised for final approval less than an hour after the church abuse report was released.
”For years, they’ve tried to fight and kill my bill. And they fought so hard to keep this grand jury report under wraps, but then they continue to say that they’re here for the victims,” Wilson said. ”The amount of money that they’ve spent to try to kill this bill, the amount of energy they spent hiring lawyers to keep this report under wraps — they should be ashamed of themselves.”
Wilson said that he hoped his fellow lawmakers who voted against the bill would read the church report to fully understand the extent of abuse that survivors have endured.
”I hope they have the courage to read the report and see just who they’re protecting, who they’ve been protecting,” he said. “For the individuals that have held this bill back for years and protected that institution, I hope they have the intestinal fortitude to at least look at this report and take their head out of the sand.”
Moore said Wednesday afternoon he had not yet read the whole investigative report.
“But I’ve read enough to know,” he said to reporters hours after the document was released.
Moore called the details of the report “horrific” and said it was “a very unneeded reminder why this bill is going to be so important.”
“There is not a statute of limitations on the pain that these victims continue to feel,” he said.
Smith applauded Wilson’s “unparalleled” courage, calling it something he has “never seen in politics or in government before.” He encouraged colleagues to go back and watch some of Wilson’s testimony from previous years.
“If we go ahead and pass this today, it will coincide with the release of the attorney general’s report of sex abuse in the Archdiocese of Baltimore that highlights and outlines the 600 children over the course of 80 years that were abused, that this bill could conceivably help and others like it,” Smith told the body.
The House of Delegates is expected to take up the Senate version of the bill for a final vote later this week.
Baltimore Banner reporters Pamela Wood and Brenda Wintrode contributed to this article.
