After our client was convicted of murder in federal court as an accessory to a shooting, we filed a motion for a judgment of acquittal based on a long-recognized common-law rule that had not been cited in federal court in 30 years. That rule states that, in order for a murder conviction to stand, death must result within a year-and-a-day of the fatal blow. In our case, the victim died ten years after the shooter wounded him. We argued that, even though this rule had seldom been cited throughout the years, it was incorporated into the federal murder statute much like common-law self-defense was.
Judge Nathan agreed, stating that “when Congress uses a common-law term of art, it presumably intends the common-law meaning of that term unless it instructs otherwise.“ United States v. Berry, No. 20-CR-84 (AJN), 2022 WL 1515397, at *7 (S.D.N.Y. May 13, 2022). According to Judge Nathan, it was “clear that Congress adopted the common-law year-and-a-day rule as part of Section 1111’s definition of ‘murder.’” Acquittal was granted on that count.