UPDATES & ANALYSIS

Iowa Supreme Court to hear oral argument at Johnston High School Monday night, and at the Judicial Branch Building Tuesday

by Rox Laird | September 14, 2018

The Iowa Supreme Court will hear oral arguments at 7 p.m. Sept. 17 at Johnston High School in a drunk-driving appeal that raises constitutional issues. The justices will be back at the Judicial Branch Building Tuesday to hear arguments in three cases on Sept. 18. A fourth case will be submitted to the Court that day without oral argument. Following are brief summaries of those cases (go to On Brief’s Cases in the Pipeline page for links to briefs).

State v. Timothy Newton

Scheduled for oral argument at 7 p.m. Sept. 17 at Johnston High School

Newton seeks further review of a Court of Appeals ruling affirming his conviction for Operating While Intoxicated. Newton argues that Iowa’s law that provides for an OWI conviction if any controlled substance is present in urine violates the right to due process under the U.S. and Iowa Constitutions.

State v. Peter Veal

Scheduled for oral argument at 9 a.m. Sept. 18

Veal appeals his conviction on two counts of first-degree murder and one count of attempt to commit murder. Among the issues appealed, Veal, who is African-American, argues that his right to a fair trial under the U.S. and Iowa Constitutions was violated. The first of two jury pools drawn from Webster County, which is 5.5 percent African-American, included no African-Americans while 2.5 percent of a second pool of 157 potential jurors were African-Americans.

State v. Kenneth Lilly

Scheduled for oral argument at 9 a.m. Sept. 18

Lilly appeals his conviction for aiding and abetting robbery in the first degree in part because he argues he was denied the constitutional right to an impartial jury of his peers. There were no African-Americans in the pool of potential jurors, while roughly 3 percent of the residents of Lee County are African-American.

State v. Scottize Danyelle Brown

Scheduled for oral argument at 1:30 p.m. Sept. 18

Brown appeals her conviction for second-offense Operating While Intoxicated (OWI), arguing that the traffic stop by a Waterloo police officer for a moving violation and a license-plate lamp violation was a pretextual stop – that is, a stop made for a valid reason although the officer has a different purpose for making the stop. Brown argues that pretextual stops are illegal under the Iowa Constitution’s equivalent of the Fourth Amendment. Two Amicus curiae (friend of the court) briefs have been filed with the Court in this case. A brief in support of Brown was filed by the American Civil Liberties Union of Iowa, the NAACP, the League of United Latin American Citizens of Iowa, and 1000 Kids for Iowa. A brief in support of the State was filed by the Iowa County Attorneys Association.

State v. Terran Roache

Will be submitted to the Court Sept. 18 without oral argument

Roache seeks further review of a Court of Appeals ruling affirming a trial court order that he pay $3,557.08 in restitution to victims following his pleading guilty to charges related to a string of automobile burglaries.

Tags: Iowa Supreme Court, Iowa Supreme Court 2018-19