Claims from Alabama women who said they had sexual encounters with Roy Moore when they were teens has rocked the U.S. Senate race just weeks ahead of the Dec. 12 election. The claims also raise the question: if the allegations are true, could Moore now face legal consequences?

As it was in 1979, the legal age of consent in Alabama is 16. Alabama law says a person commits the crime of sexual abuse in the second degree if he is older than 19 and subjects another person between the ages of 12 and 16 to sexual conduct. The first offense is a Class A misdemeanor, subject to up to a year in jail and a $6,000 fine; subsequent offenses committed within a year are Class C felonies, with sentences ranging from a year to 10 years in prison and fines of up to $15,000.

Leigh Corfman claims Moore had sexual contact with her when she was 14 and he was 32. Beverly Young Nelson alleges the then-Assistant District Attorney assaulted her in 1977 when she was 16. Three other woman - ages 16, 17, and 18 - said then went on dates with Moore when he was in his 30s but contact was limited to kissing.

Moore has denied the allegations.

Statute of limitations

If prosecuted at the time, Moore could have faced charges of sexual abuse in the second degree for his alleged contact with Corfman and Nelson.

He could have also faced more serious charges of enticing a child younger than 16 to enter a home with the purpose of proposing sexual intercourse or fondling of sexual and genital parts in connection to the charges by Corfman, who said the incident occurred at Moore's house. That is a felony punishable by up to 10 years in prison.

Additional charges could have been filed in relation to Nelson's claims, including her assertion Moore locked the door to prevent her from leaving his car.

At the time, the statute of limitations for bringing felony charges involving sexual abuse of a minor would have expired three years after the alleged incidents, or sometime between 1980 and 1983. Neither Corfman nor Jones filed a police report after the alleged incidents and no charges were ever brought against Moore.

Alabama law was later changed to remove the statute of limitations for "any sex offense involving a victim under 16 years of age." However, the change only applied to crimes committed before Jan. 7, 1985 -years after the alleged Moore incidents- for which there were no existing statute of limitations law, meaning Moore couldn't be brought up on criminal charges now in connection to sexual abuse charges from 1977 to 1979.

Why states do away with statutes of limitations

John Lentine, a criminal defense attorney with the Birmingham firm of Sheffield & Lentine PC, said like other states, Alabama removed the statute of limitations for serious crimes to reflect changes in science and to allow "prosecutions for charges/cases that may not have been provable or even solvable at the time of the incident, such as what we now call cold cases."

"In regard to sex offenses I think the ideas behind ending (statute of limitations) was that because of the nature of these offenses victims were very reluctant to come forward because of fear, shame or manipulation, especially children, and by eliminating the (statute of limitations) it afforded such victims the right to seek justice," Lentine said.

The limitations exist, however, to ensure prompt prosecutions and a chance for the accused to defend themselves, Lentine explained.

"The longer time it takes to initiate a prosecution, such as many years, then evidence is lost or gone, witnesses are gone, and memories fade, all these things together make it extremely difficult for a person who is accused to defend themselves from that accusation" he said.

Civil suit?

The statute of limitations for civil suits has also passed. Victims of childhood sexual abuse have two years from their 19th birthday to file a civil suit, according to victimsofcrime.org.

The strict time frame has earned Alabama the title as one of the five worst states in the U.S. when it comes to child sex abuse victims filing civil claims.