G.R.H. v. Louisiana

Issue: (1) Whether a forty-year delay between offense and indictment prejudiced this petitioner so substantially as to violate his due process rights, when the petitioner had no opportunity to identify or preserve evidence because he had no notice of the crime during this delay; (2) whether the Fourteenth Amendment prohibits the prosecution of a petitioner forty years after the alleged crime when the delay was not caused intentionally by the prosecution to impair the petitioner’s ability to gain a tactical advantage; and (3) whether the petitioner’s guilt was proved beyond a reasonable doubt when the only testimony about all of the elements of the crime came from the alleged victim, who relied on her memory from nearly forty years ago when she was less than ten years old.

Briefs and Documents

Certiorari-stage documents

• Opinion below (Louisiana Court of Appeal, Third Circuit)
• Petition for certiorari