Opinion ID: 1970162
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 5

Heading: Why the district court believed it was required to compel Folkerts' presence at the deposition.

Text: Our rules of criminal procedure provide [i]n felony cases the defendant shall be present personally ... at ... pretrial proceedings, and ... at every stage of the trial.... Iowa R.Crim. P. 2.27(1). The purpose of rule 2.27(1) is to implement a defendant's right of confrontation under the Sixth and Fourteenth Amendments to the United States Constitution. State v. Hendren, 311 N.W.2d 61, 62 (Iowa 1981). We have previously held a defendant cannot waive his or her right of confrontation in order to be absent from a discovery deposition of an eyewitness to a crime. Davis, 259 N.W.2d at 813-14. In reaching that conclusion, we stated: [The] [d]efendant overlooks a common-law principle of long standing. The State has the obligation in a criminal case to prove the identity of the individual who committed the crime and to do so beyond a reasonable doubt. The State is entitled to have the accused present so that the witnesses can look into his face and answer whether he is or is not the man. Id. at 813. In Randle, we reaffirmed our decision in Davis noting a defendant does not have a constitutional right to waive his or her right to confrontation so as to be absent from a deposition. 603 N.W.2d at 93. In Davis and Randle, neither defendant raised the issue in the context of a deposition that has the likelihood of creating a situation where an impermissibly suggestive identification procedure may occur.