The limitation of prosecution refers to the effective period of criminal investigation of criminals stipulated in the criminal law. After this period, the judicial organs can't prosecute, that is, they can't pursue criminal responsibility.

1. Some Provisions on the Limitation of Prosecution

According to the criminal law, the limitation of prosecution is divided into five years, ten years, fifteen years and twenty years.

(1) If the statutory maximum penalty is less than five years of fixed-term imprisonment, prosecution may not be pursued after five years.

(2) If the statutory maximum penalty is more than five years but less than ten years, no prosecution will be pursued after ten years.

(3) If the statutory maximum penalty is fixed-term imprisonment of more than 10 years, prosecution will not be pursued after 15 years.

(4) Twenty years have passed if the maximum legal punishment is life imprisonment or death penalty; After 20 years, if it is considered necessary to prosecute, it must be reported to the Supreme People's Procuratorate for approval.

Second, the calculation of the limitation of prosecution

(1) The time limit for prosecution shall be calculated according to the provisions of Article 89 of the Criminal Law, and the time limit for prosecution shall be calculated from the date of committing the crime. The date of the crime generally refers to the date of the establishment of the crime, but there are also special circumstances.

At the same time, we should also pay attention to the day when the crime was established, not the day when the crime was completed.

(2) the time limit for prosecution. The time limit for prosecution shall be counted from the date of committing the crime to the date of trial. As long as the statute of limitations has not expired on the day of the trial, you can sue.

(3) the extension of the prosecution period. The extension of the time limit for prosecution refers to the temporary suspension of the execution of the limitation of prosecution due to the circumstances stipulated by law. Specifically, it includes the following two types:

(1) According to the first paragraph of Article 88 of the Criminal Law, if a people's procuratorate, a public security organ or a state security organ files a case for investigation or a people's court accepts a case, it is not subject to the limitation of prosecution. So we can know that the murder case of Nanjing Medical University in these two days is not limited by the statute of limitations.

At the same time, according to the second paragraph of Article 88 of the Criminal Law, if the victim files a complaint within the time limit for prosecution, the people's court, the people's procuratorate and the public security organ shall file a case instead of filing a case, which is not limited by the statute of limitations.

At the same time, we should also pay attention to the fact that in addition to the first two cases, if the perpetrator commits a new crime, he will still be limited by the statute of limitations.

Third, the interruption of the limitation of prosecution

(1) The interruption of the limitation of action refers to the continuation of the limitation of action, that is, during the limitation of action, the legal system of the limitation of action is recalculated due to the occurrence of legal reasons.

According to the second paragraph of Article 89 of the Criminal Law, if a new crime is committed within the period of prosecution, the limitation of prosecution for the former crime shall be counted from the date of committing the latter crime.

(2) Pay attention to the following questions

1. In the same crime, the limitation of prosecution for criminals is interrupted and does not affect each other. For example, Zhang San and Li Si * * * committed a crime, and after a while Li Si committed a new crime of B, so Li Si recalculated, and Zhang San calculated according to the original statute of limitations.

4. In implicated offense, the former criminal act will be interrupted by the latter criminal act and recalculated.

3. If the perpetrator has committed two crimes in a row, if the former crime has expired and the latter crime has not expired, only the latter crime can be prosecuted.

Cross-border crime. The latter crime should be a crime stipulated in China's criminal law and has jurisdiction.