Legal Question in Criminal Law in Louisiana

Re: Statue of Limitations

Attemped issuance of a worthless check, is attempted theft. Attempted theft carries 1/2 of the penalty which would apply if the theft had been completed. Depending on the amount involved, the prosecution must be instituted within 2 or 4 years after the offense has been committed. Those periods may be longer if the accused leaves the state or is absent from his usual place of abode to avoid prosecution, or lacks mental capacity to proceed. After prosecution has been instituted, the state has 1 year for a misdemeanor, or 2 years for a non-capital felony to commence a trial. That period may be longer if the accused leaves the state or is absent from his usual place of abode to avoid the trial, or is insane, or any other reason beyond the control of the state. The time starts all over again when the reason for interruption no longer exists. If a person is on probation and is accused of a felony, the probation office may attempt to revoke the probation, but will usually wait to see if the probationer is convicted on the new felony before attempting to revoke him, and the revocation would revert to the date of the new crime or the conviction, and no credit is to be allowed for time spent on probation or time during which the sentence was suspended. There is a move on by prisoners to challenge that law, saying that making them serve the whole suspended sentence could result in the time served before suspension, the time on probation and the time ordered served after revocation, when totaled, being much longer than the maximum sentence for the crime originally convicted of.