Opinion ID: 2223072
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: We have repeatedly condemned such prosecutorial misconduct. See, e. g., State v. Allison, 260 Iowa 176, 183-184, 147 N.W.2d 910 (1967).

Text: This court also placed an indelible stamp of disapproval thereon in State v. Levy, 160 N.W.2d 460, 466-467 (Iowa 1968), and in so doing said: Most appropriate at this point is a statement set forth in Viereck v. United States, 318 U.S. 236, 248, 63 S.Ct. 561, 566, 87 L.Ed. 734, 741: The United States Attorney is the representative not of an ordinary party to a controversy, but of a sovereignty whose obligation to govern impartially is as compelling as its obligation to govern at all; and whose interest, therefore, in a criminal prosecution is not that it shall win a case, but that justice shall be done. As such, he is in a peculiar and very definite sense the servant of the law, the twofold aim of which is that guilt shall not escape or innocence suffer. He may prosecute with earnestness and vigorindeed, he should do so. But, while he may strike hard blows, he is not at liberty to strike foul ones. It is as much his duty to refrain from improper methods calculated to produce a wrongful conviction as it is to use every legitimate means to bring about a just one.' More than ever before those engaged in the prosecution of criminal cases would do well to heed the foregoing word of caution, heretofore voiced by this court in State v. Tolson, 248 Iowa 733, 734-735, 82 N.W.2d 105; State v. Poston, 199 Iowa 1073, 1075, 203 N.W. 257; and State v. Van Hoozer, 192 Iowa 818, 822, 185 N.W. 588. More specifically Canon DR 7-106(C)(4) (1971), Iowa Code of Professional Responsibility for Lawyers says: (C) In appearing in his professional capacity before a tribunal, a lawyer shall not:    (4) Assert his personal opinion as to the justness of a cause, as to the credibility of a witness, as to the culpability of a civil litigant, or as to the guilt or innocence of an accused; but he may argue, on his analysis of the evidence, for any position or conclusion with respect to the matters stated herein. See generally ABA Standards Relating to The Prosecution Function and The Defense Function, § 7.8, and commentaries at 277-283 (Approved Draft 1971); 53 Am. Jur., Trial, § 486; 23A C.J.S. Criminal Law §§ 1104-1105; Annot., 50 A.L.R.2d 766.