Opinion ID: 1920736
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Defendant contends trial court erred in failing to submit a requested instruction on the lesser offenses of possession with intent to deliver and simple possession.

Text: The delivery prohibited by § 204.401, The Code, 1973, is defined in § 204.101(8): `Deliver' or `delivery' means the actual, constructive, or attempted transfer from one person to another of a controlled substance, whether or not there is an agency relationship. In State v. Habhab, 209 N.W.2d 73, 74-75 (Iowa 1973) we said an instruction on a lesser included offense is required only when the offense contains one or more of the specific elements legally required for the commission of the major offense. This legal condition must always be met, and there must be a confluence of this condition and a factual condition, that is, a factual basis for submitting the included offense to the jury. In Habhab we held the legal condition was not met: possession was not a lesser included offense in the crime of selling a narcotic drug. We must now determine whether possession is a necessary legal element of delivery as that word is statutorily defined. Webster's Third New International Dictionary (G. & C. Merriam Co. 1966) defines transfer as the conveyance of right, title or interest in either real or personal property from one person to another by sale, gift or other process. In Commercial Discount Co. v. Cowen, 18 Cal.2d 610, 615, 116 P.2d 599, 602 (1941) the California Supreme Court said: [I]f we give to the word `transfer' its meaning in ordinary use, it might mean either the delivery of possession to plaintiff or the conveyance of title to it. It is conceivable a person might act as a broker in the drug trade, effecting delivery of a controlled substance by transfer of title or sale, without ever having possession of the material. See Dunahoo, Iowa's Uniform Controlled Substance Act: A Coordinated Approach to Drug Control, 21 Drake L.Rev. 77, 116 (1971). We conclude a constructive transfer which would constitute illegal delivery of a controlled substance does not require possession. Thus possession is not a necessary legal element of delivery. Of course possession may be a separate indictable offense under § 204.401(3), The Code. But trial court did not err in failing to submit it as a lesser included offense. See State v. Habhab, supra, 209 N.W.2d 73 at 75.