SAN DIEGO -- The Supreme Court decision to put a statute of limitations on old crimes is already affecting the case of a former priest and child molester behind bars in Vista.

Bail was reduced Tuesday morning for Harold Depp, (pictured, left), and his charges could still be dropped.

Depp was arrested last month in Palm Springs and was accused of molesting an 11-year-old boy in Oceanside during the early '70s. The 72-year-old was facing 41 counts of child sexual abuse but last week the U.S. Supreme Court threw out the California law that allowed the prosecution of decades-old sex abuse allegations.

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Depp is a convicted child molester from a case in Alaska in the '80s. If the 41 counts against him are thrown out, he still faces one count of failing to register as a sex offender in California. According to courthouse reporters, that could be enough to send him away for life.

Meanwhile, the state said charges against a former priest who worked in Pacific Beach will also be dismissed.

Police in Wisconsin arrested Franklyn Becker in May at the request of the California Attorney General's Office.

Becker was a priest at St. Brigid's Church in Pacific Beach from 1977 to 1979. He is accused of numerous sexual abuse charges and free on bond.

In San Francisco a notorious former priest, Patrick O'Shea, walked out of jail Monday. He was freed by that Supreme Court decision.

He is only required to show up for a hearing in two weeks when a judge will likely drop the case against him. His accusers are devastated. They say O'Shea abused them during the '60s and '70s in San Francisco.