Rogers v. Tennessee

Under Tennessee's old common-law rule, a defendant could not be convicted of murder if the victim survived more than a year and a day after the attack. Rogers (defendant) stabbed Bowdery, who died fifteen months later from complications, and Rogers was convicted of second-degree murder under a statute silent on the year-and-a-day rule. The Tennessee Supreme Court abolished the outdated rule (finding its medical-science rationale obsolete) and applied that abolition retroactively to affirm Rogers's conviction, reasoning that the Ex Post Facto Clause binds only legislatures, and that retroactive judicial action violates due process only when unexpected and indefensible. The U.S. Supreme Court granted certiorari.