United States v. Jackson

ROGERS, Associate Judge.

We are asked to decide whether to retain the “year and a day rule” as law in the District of Columbia. A Superior Court trial judge, relying upon this ancient doctrine, 1 dismissed a second-degree murder indictment brought against appellee Jackson in No. 85-59. The government appeals the dismissal. It argues that the rationale for the year and a day rule no longer exists, that courts faced with the question in the last twenty-five years have uniformly criticized the rule and with two exceptions have abrogated it, that the rule has never expressly been adopted in this…