Attorneys for Bobbi Parker, now 47, say prosecutors just waited too long to bring charges. She faces one count of assisting a prisoner to escape, and her trial is scheduled to begin early next year.

Prosecutors say Parker, who lived on the grounds of the Oklahoma State Reformatory in Granite, developed a relationship with inmate Randolph Dial, helped him escape in August 1994 and then lived on the run with him for more than a decade. Dial and Parker were discovered in April 2005, living on a chicken ranch in a rural community along the Texas-Louisiana border.

After they were found, prosecutors waited three years to the day to charge Parker with assisting in Dial's escape. The convicted killer, who maintained that he kidnapped Parker and held her against her will by threatening to harm her family, has since died in prison.

Parker's attorney, Garvin Isaacs, has filed a motion to dismiss the charge, alleging that the three-year statute of limitations had expired and also that the delay violates her constitutional right to due process.

"The prosecution's inexcusable 10-year delay in initiating an investigation — after the FBI closed its case and declared Bobbi Parker a victim of kidnapping — deprives Bobbi Parker of due process," the motion states.

Prosecutors have not yet responded to the motion. But District Attorney

"While I certainly respect wanting to have a thorough investigation in the case, the time lapse in this case will be troublesome for the prosecution," said Deborah Reheard, a veteran defense attorney and former vice president of the Oklahoma Criminal Defense Lawyers Association.

"You lose witnesses, memories fade. It's a two-edged sword for everybody, but it's the defendant that has the constitutional right to due process."

Assistant District Attorney Eric Yarborough, who is assisting in the prosecution against Parker, has said that the clock on the three-year statute of limitations did not begin to run until Parker and Dial were discovered — when authorities first learned a crime may have been committed.

Randall Coyne, a law professor at the University of Oklahoma, said it's unlikely that a judge will toss the case based on the statute of limitations argument.

"The state's argument is that they had no reason to think she was anything but a hostage until she was discovered living in relative tranquility on a chicken ranch in east Texas," Coyne said.

But Coyne said Parker's attorneys could have some success with their due process claim.

"It's an argument that this is flat-out unfair — that too much time has passed and charges could have been filed sooner," he said. "It's not a bad argument."

A Greer County judge is scheduled to rule on the defense motion Oct. 7. Parker's trial is set for January.