Court Opinion

ID: 9735983
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-26 18:38:33.881636+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:27:03.181637
License: Public Domain

SCHLEGEL, Judge
(dissenting).
I must respectfully dissent. For purposes of this appeal, we must assume that the reprimand was unjustified. In ruling upon a motion to dismiss, petitioner’s allegations must be taken as true, and the court must find that under those allegations, there is no possibility that the petitioner can be entitled to the relief prayed for. Warford v. Des Moines Metropolitan Transit, 381 N.W.2d 622, 623 (Iowa 1986). Under that assumption, I cannot agree that a reprimand which may ultimately have an effect upon whether a sentence is commuted to a term of years thereby making a prisoner eligible for parole, is not a substantial deprivation of a liberty or property interest protected under the Due Process Clause. See Davis v. State, 345 N.W.2d 97, 99 (Iowa 1984). The majority seems to feel that since petitioner is serving a life sentence under which, without some other intervention there is no possibility of parole, his chances of commutation and parole are so remote that creating an improper bad mark on his record is not likely to have much of an effect upon his freedom in the future.
I submit that to damage the only chance that a life term prisoner has for future freedom, however remote, is the single most substantial deprivation of a liberty or property interest. The worst-case scenario, which I think we must employ, would leave unreviewed those unjustified black marks upon a prisoner’s record when that prisoner was making every effort to be a model prisoner and strive for a future chance to be a model citizen. Section 902.2, Code of Iowa, suggests that even the lifer should be considered for commutation and parole. To be sure, such commutation is in the discretion of the governor. It is unlikely that the governor would commute a life sentence without the recommendation of the board of parole.
The majority states: “An inmate’s conduct is one of only eight areas considered by the parole board, such as the circumstances of the persons offense, previous social history, physical and mental examinations, employment, and prison attitude. Iowa Code § 906.5 (1985). A minor reprimand would therefore be only one factor involving many in the parole or commutation decision.” I submit that a reprimand, when it is unjustified, places a potentially erroneous picture of the inmate’s conduct, and “prison attitude” before the parole board, and cannot be downplayed by the conclusion of the majority that it is “minor.” On this record, we don’t know whether it is “minor” or not. Any reprimand that is not proper or justified cannot be minor. We need to have a determination on judicial review not whether it is minor or major, but whether it is justified at all.
I would hold that the dismissal of the petitioner’s appeal deprived him of his due process rights, and would reverse and remand this case to the trial court for a determination on the merits of the petition.