State v. Rogers

OPINION

DROWOTA, J.

The sole issue in this appeal is whether the common law year-and-a-day rule is currently a viable principle of criminal law in Tennessee. The defendant argued in the Court of Criminal Appeals that his conviction for second degree murder should be set aside because the victim’s death did not occur within a year and one day of the fatal stab wounds. The Court of Criminal Appeals rejected the defendant’s argument and affirmed his conviction upon finding that the common law year-and-a-day rule was abolished by the Criminal Sentencing Reform Act of 1989. For the reasons that…