Rogers v. Tennessee

Justice Scalia, with whom Justice Stevens and Justice Thomas join, and with whom Justice Breyer joins as to Part II,

dissenting.

The Court today approves the conviction of a man for a murder that was not murder (but only manslaughter) when the offense was committed. It thus violates a principle— encapsulated in the maxim nulla poena sine lege — which “dates from the ancient Greeks” and has been described as *468one of the most “widely, held value-judgment[s] in the entire history of human thought.” J. Hall, General Principles of Criminal Law 59 (2d ed. 1960). Today’s opinion produces, moreover, a…