United States v. Michael Clifton Chase

OPINION

SPROUSE, Senior Circuit Judge:

This appeal from a conviction of first degree murder committed on a United States military reservation involves the determination of whether a homicide conviction can be sustained if the victim initially survived an assault, lived for nearly seventeen years, but eventually died as a result of injuries suffered in the attack. In particular, we must decide the continuing vitality of the federal common law rule barring indictment and trial of a defendant for murder when the victim’s death occurred more than a year and a day after the fatal attack was…