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State v. Birth, 604 N.W.2d 664 (Iowa 2000)
(1/20/00).
Impeachment -- deferred judgment pursuant to unexpired probation pursuant to
suspended sentence can serve as "prior conviction" under Iowa R. Evid. 609(a).
Witness can be questioned about prior conviction
under rule 609(a) where that conviction was the subject of a deferred judgment
for which the probationary period had not been completed. The witness fell
between two established rules: (1) reference cannot be made to a deferred
judgment for which probation has been successfully completed as there is no
"conviction" therefrom and (2) a defendant's guilty plea alone, without judgment
or sentence, does amount to a conviction. "Until probation was completed, and
the deferred judgment expunged, evidence of Franklin's guilty plea was
appropriate for impeachment under rule of evidence 609(a)."
State v. Buchanan,
604 N.W.2d 667 (Iowa 2000) (1/20/00).
Felon status from aggravated
misdemeanor. Defendant qualified as a felon in possession of a firearm
by virtue of his previous conviction of an aggravated misdemeanor involving a
weapon. While the statute provides that misdemeanors carrying incarceration
terms of less than two years do not qualify as felonies for this purpose, an
exception applies where the misdemeanor involved a firearm, as in defendant's
case.
State v. Conroy,
604 N.W.2d 636 (Iowa 2000) (1/20/00).
Reckless use of firearm: sufficiency of "recklessness" where use was admittedly
intentional.
"Reckless", as used in the "reckless use of a firearm" statute,
modifies the manner in which a firearm is intentionally discharged, not the
user's mental state in so doing. "Thus, the statute requires that the discharge
of a firearm occasion unreasonable risk to others; intent to injure is
irrelevant." Substantial evidence of recklessness existed in defendant's
having shot out the windows of the victim's truck, parked at the end of to the
victim's home overlooking a field, in the middle of the night, after drinking
heavily.
State v. Gilliland,
604 N.W.2d 666 (Iowa 2000) (1/20/00).
Deferred judgment not authorized for juvenile where original jurisdiction was in
district court. Juvenile who is charged
with crime over which adult court has original jurisdiction is not eligible for
deferred judgment; relevant statute provides for deferred judgments where
original jurisdiction is in juvenile court but defendant is waived to district
court.
State v. Miller,
606 N.W.2d 310 (Iowa 2000) (1/20/00).
Changed OWI law (expanding consideration of priors from 6 to 12 years).
Present prosecution for an offense subject to enhancement based on prior
offenses does not constitute a successive prosecution or punishment for the
prior offenses.
State v. Smith,
604 N.W.2d 662 (Iowa 2000) (1/20/00).
Sex abuse registry -- failure to "notify" re change of address not
encompassed in penalties pertaining to failure to register.
Section 692A.7(1) only punishes a sexual offender's failure to register,
not his or her failure to notify of a change of address. Thus, although
offender is required to "notify" sheriff of a change in address, section
692A.7(1) does not provide a penalty for failure to do so.
[LEGISLATIVE ALERT: This problem is addressed in SF
2031].
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