People v. Williams

Opinion

CHIN, J.

For over 60 years, this court described the statute of limitations as limiting the court’s subject matter jurisdiction and said that trial courts could not proceed in a time-barred case. (E.g., People v. McGee (1934) 1 Cal.2d 611 [36 P.2d 378] (McGee); People v. Chadd (1981) 28 Cal.3d 739, 756-757 [170 Cal.Rptr. 798, 621 P.2d 837] (Chadd).) Accordingly, “this court and the Courts of Appeal have repeatedly held that a defendant may assert the statute of limitations at any time.” (Cowan v. Superior Court (1996) 14 Cal.4th 367, 371 [58 Cal.Rptr.2d 458, 926 P.2d 438] (Cowan).) In…