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State of Iowa v. Erin Macke. IA criminal appellate procedure
2019 amendments to Iowa Code 814.6 and 814.7 limited direct appeals from guilty pleas, and also required claims of ineffective assistance of counsel to be made in postconviction proceedings rather than direct appeal.
Erin Macke pleaded guitly (an Alford plea) to child endangerment, after allegedly leaving her children alone when they were 6, 7, and 12, and flying to Germany. She was sentenced to two years' probation, but later claimed that the sentence violated a plea agreement that she would get deferred judgment. She later claimed that her attorney had provided ineffective assistance of counsel by not objecting.
She appealed, and the case was ultimately heard by the Iowa Supreme Court. The appeal was pending on July 1, 2019, when the new statute took effect. Therefore, the first issue on appeal was whether the new statute applied to the appeal.
The Supreme Court held that the change in the statute was prospective only. Therefore, the ineffective assistance claim, and the appeal from the guilty plea, could be done in a direct appeal.
The court then turned to the merits and agreed with the defendant that the plea agreement had been breached. Therefore, it affirmed the conviction but remanded the case for resentencing. It also noted that the resentencing should be done by a different judge.
No.18-0839 (Iowa Sept. 13, 2019).
Please see the original opinion for the court's exact language.
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Richard P. Clem is an attorney and continuing legal education (CLE) provider in Minnesota. He has been in private practice in the Twin Cities for 25 years. He has a J.D., cum laude, from Hamline University School of Law in St. Paul and a B.A. in History from the University of Minnesota. His reported cases include: Asociacion Nacional de Pescadores a Pequena Escala o Artesanales de Colombia v. Dow Quimica de Colombia, 988 F.2d 559, rehearing denied, 5 F.3d 530 (5th Cir. 1993), cert. denied, 510 U.S. 1041 (1994); LaMott v. Apple Valley Health Care Center, 465 N.W.2d 585 (Minn. Ct. App. 1991); Abo el Ela v. State, 468 N.W.2d 580 (Minn. Ct. App. 1991).
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