Opinion ID: 2216780
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 5

Heading: Did trial court err in overruling defendant's motion for a judgment of acquittal?

Text: Defendant contends that trial court erred in failing to carry out its order adjudicating the law point not only by failing to so instruct the jury but also by overruling his motion for judgment of acquittal after the jury returned its verdict. Defendant bases this contention upon Iowa R.Crim.P. 22(1), which provides in part, Upon a verdict of not guilty for the defendant, or special verdict upon which a judgment of acquittal must be given, the court must render judgment of acquittal immediately. Defendant reasons that the jury's verdict of guilty, combined with its answer to the interrogatory that Gloria shot herself, was tantamount to a finding that defendant's only culpable conduct was aiding and abetting suicide. By his thinking, trial court's prior ruling that aiding and abetting a noncriminal activity does not constitute a crime mandated its overturning the verdict supposedly based upon that theory. As previously discussed, the order adjudicating the law point was void. Thus trial court's failure to enforce it as the law of the case in any respect was not error. Overruling defendant's motion was also proper for a more fundamental alternative reason. Iowa R.Crim.P. 18(10)(b) does not authorize a trial court's entry of judgment of acquittal in contravention of a jury's verdict of guilty unless the court has reserved decision on a motion for judgment of acquittal made at the close of all evidence. Trial court immediately overruled all of defendant's pre-verdict motions for judgment of acquittal, reserving judgment on none. Otherwise, judgment of acquittal may be rendered only if the jury reached a verdict of not guilty or a special verdict, as distinguished from an interrogatory, compare Iowa R.Civ.P. 205 with Iowa R.Civ.P. 206, which called for a judgment of acquittal. Iowa R.Crim.P. 22(1). Neither such type of verdict was returned here. As noted previously, we have in the past as well held that trial courts in this state are without authority to enter postconviction judgments of acquittal. After a guilty verdict is returned, relief is limited to arrest of judgment, Iowa R.Crim.P. 23(3), new trial, Iowa R.Crim.P. 23(2), or the postconviction procedure provided in chapter 663A of the Code. State v. Deets, 195 N.W.2d 118, 123-25 (Iowa 1972); see State v. Stennett, 220 Iowa 388, 395, 260 N.W. 732, 736 (1935). Consequently, trial court's entry of a judgment of acquittal at that juncture would have been void and of no effect. Deets, 195 N.W.2d at 125. Its failure to enter a void judgment was certainly not error.