Court Opinion

ID: 9592794
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-22 00:16:58.018099+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T12:05:28.504775
License: Public Domain

HABHAB, Judge
(dissenting).
I dissent. It is true that our supreme court in State v. Marsh, 392 N.W.2d 132 (Iowa 1986), admonished trial courts that flight instructions are “rarely advisable ... and should be cautiously given.” But the court in that same opinion held that the giving of such instruction does not necessarily constitute reversible error. That court affirmed the giving of the flight instruction on several grounds, the more noticeable one being that the defendant failed to show he was prejudiced by the flight instruction.
Likewise in the case before us, I find from an examination of the record that the defendant was not prejudiced by the giving of the flight instruction. The evidence establishing the defendant’s guilt is overwhelming. Therefore I would affirm the trial court as to its giving of the flight instruction.