Gregory Arnold Murphy, Cross-Appellant v. Dewey Sowders, Superintendent, Cross-Appellee

KRUPANSKY, Circuit Judge.

The Commonwealth of Kentucky has appealed the order of the United States District Court for the Western District of Kentucky, 607 F.Supp. 385 (1985), granting a writ of habeas corpus to the petitioner-ap-pellee Gregory Arnold Murphy (Murphy), who had been tried and convicted in a Kentucky state court for the murder of a woman in October of 1979. In granting the writ, the district court concluded that Murphy’s constitutional right to be free from ex post facto legislative enactments had been infringed by the Commonwealth.

A primary issue of consequence confronting this…