Opinion ID: 1822128
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Due Process and Fair Play.

Text: The due process issue which the parties have presented in this appeal is quite narrow. Defendant asks us to find that his termination from the program violated his substantive due process right to fundamental fairness and fair play because he had performed the promises he made in entering the program. The relief he requests is that he be allowed to complete the program and plead guilty to a misdemeanor rather than a felony offense. Defendant does not challenge the procedural adequacy of the hearing which preceded denial of his motion to dismiss. We thus are not concerned with such questions as whether defendant received notice and a fair opportunity to be heard in an impartial forum before his participation in the program could be terminated. See, e.g., Gagnon v. Scarpelli, 411 U.S. 778, 786, 93 S.Ct. 1756, 1761-62, 36 L.Ed.2d 656, 664 (1973) (listing six minimum requirements of procedural due process which state must follow before revoking probation); State v. Grimme, 274 N.W.2d 331, 336-37 (Iowa 1979) (explaining procedures which are due a defendant terminated from a drug treatment program). The State asks that we affirm the denial of defendant's motion to dismiss on essentially two grounds: (1) that the prosecution acted reasonably, not unfairly or arbitrarily, in terminating defendant from the program because he violated requirements for its continuation; and (2) that defendant did not rely to his detriment on the pretrial diversion agreement because his confession was not offered in evidence at the subsequent criminal trial and he was not prejudiced by participating for several months in the program. The State in its brief and argument concedes that the prosecutor's action in terminating defendant from the program should be measured by a basic standard of fundamental fairness, stating that due process would be denied if the termination would shock the sense of fair play. The State may have conceded too much in linking prosecutorial fair play to the requirements of the due process clause of the fourteenth amendment. In the recent case of Mabry v. Johnson, ___ U.S. ___, 104 S.Ct. 2543, 81 L.Ed.2d 437 (1984), the Court affirmed the conviction of a defendant who claimed that the due process clause entitled him to enforce the terms of a favorable plea bargain which the prosecution had withdrawn before it had been accepted by the court. Defendant's conviction rested on a second less-favorable plea bargain. The Court explained that the due process clause does not in itself entitle an individual to enforcement of a bare promise or agreement. A plea bargain standing alone is without constitutional significance; in itself it is a mere executory agreement which, until embodied in the judgment of a court, does not deprive an accused of liberty or any other constitutionally protected interest. It is the ensuing guilty plea that implicates the Constitution. Id. at ___, 104 S.Ct. at 2546, 81 L.Ed.2d at 442. Here, as in Mabry, the plea agreement which defendant seeks to enforce was never presented to nor accepted by the trial court. Defendant pleaded not guilty after his motion to dismiss was denied, and the judgment of conviction resulted not from a tainted guilty plea but from a jury trial. Nevertheless, because the parties have postured the issue before us as one involving fundamental fairness and fair play under the due process clause, we decide the case by applying that standard. There is precedent outside the due process clause for requiring that the prosecutor's conduct with respect to plea bargaining be measured by our time-honored fair play norm. State v. Kuchenreuther, 218 N.W.2d 621, 624 (Iowa 1974) (setting aside felony conviction because county attorney reneged on plea-bargain promise to charge only misdemeanor, though due process claim not preserved). Moreover, Standard 3-4.2(c) of the American Bar Association's Standards for Criminal Justice (1982 Supp.) provides: It is unprofessional conduct for a prosecutor to fail to comply with a plea agreement, unless a defendant fails to comply with a plea agreement or other extenuating circumstances are present. Thus do we undertake to decide whether the termination of defendant from the program violated the standard of fundamental fairness and fair play which the posture of this case presents, hypothesizing but not deciding that the due process clause is the basis for applying that standard.