Tuesday, August 18, 2009

Stasis and Statute of Limitations

At some point, we'll develop the ability to put humans in stasis, where little or no time passes for the person in the box. How will this effect laws regarding statutes of limitations for crimes?

For example, the statute of limitations for bank robbery is 5 years. What say I pull off an extremely lucky or well-informed score, and steal 5 million dollars?

On foot, I slip through back alleys a just a few short blocks from the bank, where I head into a public storage facility and to a very small storage locker that's rented under a fake, untraceable name. I would not rent years in advance, that might attract suspicion - it's a month-to-month rental, connected to automatically debit a bank account also not in my name with plenty of cash to allow for rental increases.

I stuff the 5 million into the stasis pod I've installed in the storage locker, and climb in with it. I close the door, and ding! When I step out, it's 5 years and 1 day later and I am 5 million dollars richer.

Of course, there are already reasons the statute might not apply: 'Acts During Which Statute Does Not Run - Continually absent from state, no reasonably ascertainable work or abode in state: maximum extension 3 yrs.'

Does stasis count as 'absent'? You're pretty much on life support, possibly in a very legally definable way - and people on life-support should be pretty easy to find, right?

You're definitely not working, although I suppose you could arrange to be on retainer as a consultant, or being paid to research a book detailing the effects of stasis on the body and psyche.

'Abode' - is this a residence you're paying for? Does public storage count? Oh, sorry Mr. Bank Robber, this area is not zoned for residential.

There's also something called 'tolling' where the time limits on the statute of limitations have been suspended. When you go into the stasis pod, you'd have no way of knowing when would be a good time to defrost yourself - changes in laws might mean the whole 'wait out the statute of limitations in stasis' was a waste of time.

You could have the stasis pod connected to the internet, and have a smart program watch for a legal notice posted that it's safe to rouse you, or 10 years, whichever came first.

3 comments:

  1. Have you learned nothing from the twilight zone?

    "Any person or persons attempting to evade capture following a heist by utilizing stasis or time travel technology will:
    A) Wake to discover the economy has changed and the cash/gold/gems stolen are now worth it.
    B) Will awaken into a post nuclear apocalypse.
    C) The stasis unit will malfunction, reawakening the subject millions of years into the future when Humankind are no longer the dominant species."

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  2. Crap...'A' should read 'where cash/gold/gems stolen are now worthless'

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  3. Paulius, well said, sir! I should have considered the Twilight Zone Paradox!

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