Court Opinion

ID: 9736472
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-26 18:57:51.721145+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:27:06.877263
License: Public Domain

LARSON, Justice
(dissenting).
I dissent because I believe the statute applied here is vague as to this defendant. While her actions might be considered harassment under the broad definitions of section 708.7(1), I do not believe they may reasonably be construed as actions directed at a juror. The test is that the statute must “define the criminal offense with sufficient definiteness that ordinary people can understand what conduct is prohibited.” See Kolender v. Lawson, 461 U.S. 352, 357, 103 S.Ct. 1855, 1858, 75 L.Ed.2d 903, 909 (1983).
In this case, I do not believe we can assume that an ordinary person would understand that harassment of a person who had been, but is no longer, a juror could be the subject of this crime. Presumably, when the verdict was rendered, this juror, along with the others, was discharged and was no longer a juror. Here, the telephone call was made only a day or so after the trial. If the defendant had made the call a month or six months later, could it reasonably be construed as a call to a “juror”? I think for constitutional purposes the majority’s interpretation stretches the statute too far. It should not be a matter of “once a juror always a juror.”
State v. Reynolds, relied on by the majority, does not support its conclusion be*257cause the status of the victim, a juror who had been discharged, was not even raised as an issue.
We should adopt a bright-line rule that a person is no longer a “juror” under the statute once the juror has been discharged. Any harassment after the point of discharge should be prosecuted under our general harassment statute, Iowa Code section 708.7.
I would affirm the district court, but on a different ground.