A year a day used to be the common law standard for most of American history. That began to be eroded by states in the 1990s. Finally, in a 2001 Supreme Court case, Rogers v. Tennessee, the Court held that the ending of these common law prohibitions of ‘a year and one day’ was not a violation of the Ex Post Facto clause or other due process protections. So, the flood gates were opened to these kinds of decades-long ‘delayed murder’ cases.
The most famous one was likely the Brady case from Reagan’s assassination attempt. When Brady finally died in 2014/2015, the state of VA found the cause of death to be ‘homicide.’ The feds declined to prosecute because of the previous finding of mental incompetence from his first trial.
When I was in 7th grade, a kid pulled my legs out from under me and I came down backwards straight on my head. I actually ended up in the nursing office because I got quite light headed for a few hours. Ignoring that he was a minor himself at the time (1967), if I died today and some doctor certified that it was a result of damage from that fall, should they be able to prosecute him for manslaughter, or maybe second degree murder?
I would think not. It certainly would not be fair to him or is family. It would not be “justice” in any form.