Court Opinion

ID: 9857784
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-09-24 16:00:58.571238+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T09:46:04.999482
License: Public Domain

McCORMICK, Justice,
concurring specialty-
When an indeterminate sentence is imposed, the actual period of incarceration is determined by the board of parole. Section 906.5 of the Iowa Code (1981) restricts the board’s authority when the crime is a forcible felony and the person has a prior conviction of a forcible felony or its equivalent. Section 902.7 restricts the board’s authority when the person has used a firearm in the current offense. (“A person sentenced pursuant to this section shall not be eligible for parole until he or she has served the minimum sentence of confinement imposed by this section.”). The provisions operate the same way whether they carry the same label or not. The only difference is in the time and manner in which the determination of their applicability is made. Therefore I am unable to agree that the label controls the issue of constitutionality.
Under the principles in Greenholtz v. Inmates of the Nebraska Penal and Correctional Complex, 442 U.S. 1, 99 S.Ct. 2100, 60 L.Ed.2d 668 (1979), and State v. Wilson, 314 N.W.2d 408 (Iowa 1982), I agree with the court that it is not a denial of due process or equal protection for the legislature to assign the determination of applicability of section 906.5 to the executive rather than judicial branch. In theory the decision will be made with administrative due process and will be subject to judicial review. The statute is not facially invalid. The difference in procedure for establishing the factual predicate for applying section 906.5 and 902.7 can be rationally defended on the basis that the predicate for section 906.5 depends on the existence of facts unrelated to the current offense.