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One and Three Years and a Day Rules

17 February, 2016 - 11:05

In criminal homicide cases, the causation analysis could be complicated by a victim’s survivafor an extended time period. Because of modern technology, victims often stay alive on machines for many years after they have been harmed. However, it may be unreasonable to hold a defendant responsible for a death that occurs several years after the defendant’s criminal act. A few states have rules that solve this dilemma.

Some states have either a one year and a day rule or athree years and a day rule. 1 These rules create a timeline for the victim’s death that changes the causation analysis in a criminal homicide case. Under one or three years and a day rules, the victim of a criminal homicide must die within the specified time limits for the defendant to be criminally responsible. If the victim does not die within the time limits, the defendant may be charged with attempted murder, rather than criminal homicide. California makes the timeline a rebuttablpresumptiothat can be overcome with evidence proving that the conduct was criminal and the defendant should still be convicted. 2

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Figure 4.10 California Penal Code 
 

Death timeline rules are often embodied in a state’s common law and have lost popularity in recent years. 3Thus many states have abolished arbitrary time limits for the victim’s death in favor of ordinary principles of legal causation. 4 Death timeline rules are not to be confused with the statute of limitations, which is the time limit the government has to prosecutea criminal defendant.

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Figure 4.11 Diagram of the Elements of a Crime 
 

KEY TAKEAWAYS

  • Factual cause means that the defendant starts the chain of events leading to the harm Legal cause means that the defendant is held criminally responsible for the harm because the harm is a foreseeable result of the defendant’s criminal act.
  • An intervening superseding cause breaks the chain of events started by the defendant’s act and cuts the defendant off from criminal responsibility.
  • One and three years and a day rules create a timeline for the victim’s death in a criminal homicide.

EXERCISES

Answer the following questions. Check your answers using the answer key at the end of the chapter.

  1. Phillipa sees Fred picking up trash along the highway and decides she wants to frighten him. She drives a quarter of a mile ahead of Fred and parks her car. She then hides in the bushes and waits for Fred to show up. When Fred gets close enough, she jumps out of the bushes screaming. Frightened, Fred drops his trash bag and runs into the middle of the highway where he is struck by a vehicle and killed. Is Phillipa’s act the legal cause of Fred’s death? Why or why not?
  2. Read Bullockv. State, 775 A.2d. 1043 (2001). In Bullock, the defendant was convicted of manslaughter based on a vehicle collision that occurred when his vehicle hit the victim’s vehicle in an intersection. The defendant was under the influence of alcohol and traveling thirty miles per hour over the speed limit. The victim was in the intersection unlawfullybecause the light was red. The defendant claimed that the victim was the intervening superseding cause of her own death. Did the Supreme Court of Delaware agree? The case is available at this link: http://caselaw.findlaw.com/de-supreme-court/1137701.html
  3. Read Common wealtvCasanova, 429 Mass. 293 (1999). In Casanova, the defendant shot the victim in 1991, paralyzing him. The defendant was convicted of assault with intent to murder and two firearms offenses. In 1996, the victim died. The defendant was thereafter indicted for his murder. Massachusetts had abolished the year and a day rule in 1980. Did the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court uphold the indictment, or did the court establish a new death timeline rule? The case is available at this link: http://scholar.google.com/scholar_case?case=16055857562232849296&hl=en&as_sdt=2&as_vis=1&oi=scholarr