ex post facto prohibition

The grandson Normand Morrison executed his will on August 21, 1779. On March 21, 1793, the Court of Probate for Hartford County disapproved the will and refused to record it. More than eighteen months elapsed from this decree, during which the right of appeal was lost under Connecticut law. There was no law in Connecticut allowing a new hearing before the court of probate except through special legislative action. On the second Thursday of May 1795, the Legislature of Connecticut passed a resolution setting aside the March 1793 decree of the Court of Probate. The resolution granted a new hearing before the same court of probate with liberty of appeal in six months. This resolution was passed after the time for appeal from the original decree had expired. A new hearing occurred on July 27, 1795, resulting in the court of probate approving the will and ordering it recorded. An appeal followed in August 1795 to the Superior Court at Hartford, which affirmed the decree in February 1796. The Supreme Court of Errors of Connecticut then reviewed the case and in June 1796 confirmed the judgment of the Superior Court. Calder and his wife asserted a claim to the premises as the heiress of Normand Morrison the physician. Bull and his wife asserted their claim under the will of Normand Morrison the grandson. The matter came before the United States Supreme Court for review of the state court proceedings.

In 1998, while serving as a volunteer driver for the Department of Veterans Affairs Medical Center, Turner struck up a romantic relationship with Vester Mayo, a nurse at the Medical Center. Vester died in December 2000. She had taken out a life insurance policy through a federally-administered program. Her beneficiary designation form, contained in her personnel file, listed Turner and her mother, Lorenza Mayo, as co-beneficiaries. In January 2001, Turner filed a claim for his share of the life insurance benefits and later received a money market account valued at $20,562.90. In preparing her claim, Lorenza examined her daughter’s papers and concluded that Vester’s beneficiary designation form contained forgeries. The dates on the form were inconsistent, Lorenza’s name and address were misspelled, and Vester’s social security number was incorrect. Lorenza reported this to federal authorities. The ensuing investigation revealed that shortly after obtaining his life insurance payout, Turner wrote a $1,000 check from the proceeds to his friend, LaTanya Andrews. Andrews was a payroll technician at the Medical Center who had worked in the human resources section housing employees’ personnel files. A government agent interviewed her in November 2005. At first Andrews said she never received more than $10 from Turner, but when shown the check she gave conflicting accounts about its purpose, and agents found nothing in her bank records to support her claims. The grand jury charged Turner and Andrews with conspiracy to defraud the United States and bribery. Evidence showed that Vester’s signature on the beneficiary form had been forged, that Andrews had easy access to Vester’s personnel file, and that Lorenza saw Turner forge her daughter’s signature on two checks. The jury convicted both defendants on both counts after a trial. Turner was sentenced in September 2007 to 33 months’ imprisonment. He appealed his conviction and sentence to the D.C. Circuit.

Wilbert K. Rogers stabbed James Bowdery with a butcher knife on May 6, 1994. One of the stab wounds penetrated Bowdery's heart. During surgery to repair the wound to his heart, Bowdery went into cardiac arrest but was resuscitated and survived the procedure. As a result, however, he had developed a condition known as cerebral hypoxia, which results from a loss of oxygen to the brain. Bowdery's higher brain functions had ceased, and he slipped into and remained in a coma until August 7, 1995, when he died from a kidney infection. Approximately 15 months had passed between the stabbing and Bowdery's death which, according to the undisputed testimony of the county medical examiner, was caused by cerebral hypoxia secondary to a stab wound to the heart. Rogers was convicted in Tennessee state court of second degree murder. The state's criminal homicide statute makes no mention of the year and a day rule. It defines criminal homicide simply as the unlawful killing of another person. The trial judge instructed the jury that it could convict Rogers of murder if it found beyond a reasonable doubt that the victim's death was a natural and probable consequence of the stabbing, even if it occurred more than a year later. The jury convicted Rogers of second degree murder. Rogers appealed his conviction to the Tennessee Court of Criminal Appeals. That court affirmed after holding that the state's 1989 Criminal Sentencing Reform Act had abolished all common law defenses in criminal actions. The Tennessee Supreme Court affirmed on different grounds. It observed that the year and a day rule had been part of the common law of the state despite the paucity of case law on the rule. The United States Supreme Court granted certiorari.