It seems that if you log out shortly after being engaged in PvP combat, you'll be dead when you log back in, even if you were out of combat when you logged out.
Had some ass 7-8 levels higher than me attempt a gank, feared him and managed to get away and run to the closest town and log out (not alt-f4, but using Exit Game), and even though I had been out of combat for at least 30 seconds, I was still dead upon login.
Is this intended or some kind of bug?