Burford v. State

For almost 20 years, from the time of its passage in 1967 to the time of the 1986 amendment at issue here, Tennessee’s Post-Conviction Procedure Act had no time limitation on the filing of a petition under the Act. Because the courts were too frequently burdened with stale complaints, the legislature attempted to solve this problem by creating a three-year statute of limitations that ostensibly took effect on July 1,1986. See T.C.A. § 40-30-102 (originally enacted as Acts 1986, Ch. 634, § 1).

If the amendment had been given literal application by the courts, the new statute of limitations…