State v. Young

The issues in this appeal are: (1) whether the “year and a day” common-law rule in murder cases has been the law of New Jersey to date; (2) whether the rule should now be abolished or altered judicially; and (3), if the answers to (1) and (2) are in the affirmative, whether such change in the law should be applied retroactively to the defendant, who shot his victim September 17, 1972, with resulting death on November 19, 1973, and was convicted of murder. The common-law rule held that “[i]n order also to make killing murder, it is requisite that the party die within a year and a day after the…