Opinion ID: 2006946
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Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Appellee's Eligibility for Release on Bail.

Text: The narrow question presented on appeal is whether a parolee from another state, who resides in Iowa under the supervision of Iowa parole authorities, and who, after violating the terms of his parole, is arrested pursuant to a warrant for retaking prisoners which specifies he may not be admitted to bail, may be admitted to bail in Iowa pending his transfer back to the issuing state. Iowa has adopted the Interstate Probation and Parole Compact which provides as follows: 2. That each receiving state will assume the duties of visitation of and supervision over probationers or parolees of any sending state and in the exercise of those duties will be governed by the same standards that prevail for its own probationers and parolees. 3. That duly accredited officers of a sending state may at all times enter a receiving state and there apprehend and retake any person on probation or parole. For that purpose no formalities will be required other than establishing the authority of the officer and the identity of the person to be retaken. All legal requirements to obtain extradition of fugitives from justice are hereby expressly waived on the part of states party hereto, as to such persons. The decision of the sending state to retake a person on probation or parole shall be conclusive upon and not reviewable within the receiving state. Provided, however, that if at the time when a state seeks to retake a probationer or parolee there should be pending against him within the receiving state any criminal charge, or he should be suspected of having committed within such state a criminal offense, he shall not be retaken without the consent of the receiving state until discharged from prosecution or from imprisonment for such offense. Iowa Code §§ 247.40(2) and (3) (1981). Appellee argues that subsection (2) of the compact allows Iowa to admit the Nevada parolee to bail if he would qualify for admittance to bail under the standards which Iowa applies to its own probationers and parolees. Because Iowa Code section 908.2 (1981) provides that an alleged parole violator may be released on bail, he reasons that the trial court had the power to release him on bail also. The State on the other hand urges that the language of the interstate compact which provides that the decision of the sending state to retake a person on probation or parole shall be conclusive upon and not reviewable within the receiving state embraces the decision of the sending state to deny a parolee bail upon retaking. It argues from this premise that the district court exceeded its authority in admitting appellee to bail in the present case. We have found three decisions which lend support to the State's interpretation of the interstate compact and none which support that of the appellee. The State's argument finds support in Ogden v. Klundt, 15 Wash. App. 475, 478, 550 P.2d 36, 39 (1976); Ex Parte Womack, 455 S.W.2d 288, 290 (Tex. Cr.App.1970); and Ex Parte Cantrell, 172 Tex.Cr.R. 646, 362 S.W.2d 115, 116-17 (Tex. Cr.App.1962). Appellee suggests that the denial of bail to the out-of-state parolees in the cited cases was based on the domestic law of the receiving state rather than the language of the interstate compact upon which the State relies in the present case. He reiterates his argument that Iowa's domestic law unlike the domestic law of Washington and Texas, does permit the release of parole violators on bail following their apprehension. We do not read the cited cases as narrowly as the appellee. Moreover, we independently adopt the interpretation of the interstate compact which is proposed by the State, regardless of the rationale of the Washington and Texas decisions. Under the interstate compact, if the agents of the sending state apprehend a parolee in a receiving state following a parole violation, they may hold him in their custody pending return to the sending state. For purposes of determining appellee's status in the present case, we believe that the Iowa authorities should be considered as agents of the sending state. As such, they are bound by the decision of the sending state with respect to whether the apprehended parolee should be admitted to bail and the courts of the receiving state should recognize that fact. Such an interpretation serves to promote comity among those states which are members of the compact. Based on the foregoing conclusions, the order of the district court admitting appellee to bail is reversed. REVERSED.