In granting certification in State v. Bradley C. Thompson, the Supreme Court will decide whether an indictment for aggravated sexual assault committed in 2001 may be returned 16 years later in 2017, despite the five-year statute of limitations imposed on most criminal prosecutions under N.J.S.A. 2C:1-6. The issue arises due to the "DNA evidence exception" to the statute of limitations enacted by the Legislature in 2001, which provides that: "when the prosecution is supported by physical evidence that identifies the actor by means of DNA testing or fingerprint analysis, time does not start to run until the State is in possession of both the physical evidence and the DNA or fingerprint evidence necessary to establish the identification of the actor by means of comparison to the physical evidence." N.J.S.A. 2C:1-6(c). Interpreting the text of that statute is at the heart of this case.

The prolonged sequence of events in Thompson was as follows. A sexual assault occurred on July 21, 2001. A swab of dried saliva allegedly from the unidentified perpetrator was taken at the time from the victim's person, from which a DNA profile was derived. In our view, this is the "physical evidence" referred to in N.J.S.A. 2C:1-6(c). The state forensics lab entered that profile into CODIS, the national DNA index system maintained by the FBI, on Jan. 23, 2002.