Iowa case law summary by Attorney Richard Clem: Criminal Law.

Benjamin E. Screiber v. State of Iowa. IA Criminal Law

The defendant in this Wapello County, Iowa, case was convicted of murder in the first degree and sentenced to life without the possibility of parole. In 2015, he was hospitalized, and in the hospital, he was resuscitated five times via an IV. He received surgery and was sent back to the prison.

The defendant filed a petition for postconviction relief, in which he argued that his "death" in 2015 marked the end of his life sentence, and he should be released. Not surprisingly, the district court, Judge Crystal S. Cronk, disagreed and dismissed the petition. Undaunted, the defendant filed a pro se appeal, and the case was heard by the Iowa Court of Appeals.

The appeals court affirmed the lower court's decision. It began by noting that the case involved the defendant attempting to resurrect the petition for postconviction relief. The defendant argued that he had been sentenced to life, "but not to Life plus one day." The appeals court pointed out that he failed to cite any authority for his argument.

The appeals court held that the plain legislative intent was that the defendant would be incarcerated for the rest of his natural life, regardless of intervening events such as the hospitalization. Otherwise any incarceration would end when medical procedures involved a resuscitation. The court noted that the defendant "is either alive, in which case he must remain in prison, or he is dead, in which case this appeal is moot." In either case, there was no relief that the Court of Appeals could grant and ittherefore affirmed.

No. 18-1824 (Nov. 6, 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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