Danielle Brown was one of five people in the bedroom of a house when a Des Moines police SWAT team swarmed in to execute a warrant naming a male occupant of the house to be searched for drugs and weapons. Brown was not named in the warrant but police searched her purse and found a small amount …
Former Iowa State Sen. Kent Sorenson’s 15-month sentence in federal prison for lying about taking payments for political endorsements was upheld by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit in St. Louis Tuesday.
Federal prosecutors had recommended …
The Iowa Supreme Court is being asked to take another step toward protecting juvenile offenders from prison sentences designed for adults in an appeal set for argument Tuesday.
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Law enforcement authorities who dilly-dally in investigating crimes face the prospect of losing at trial because the statute of limitations clock has run out, the Iowa Supreme ruled Friday.
The Court threw out the 2015 conviction of Eddie Tipton, a former M …
The Iowa Supreme Court entered opinions in eight cases in October 2024. In addition to Rox Laird’s analysis of State of Iowa v. William Noble Chaiden Miller and Katherine Avenarius and Paul Avenarius v. State of Iowa summarized on this blog, the remaining opinions from October are summarized below.
The Iowa Supreme Court will hear arguments in eight cases Nov. 13 and Nov. 14. Five other cases will be submitted to the Court without oral argument. Following are brief summaries of the November cases.
When Dubuque police officer Katherine Avenarius accidentally shot herself in the leg while attending an Iowa Law Enforcement Academy firearms instructor school, she sued the academy claiming her injury was the result of an instructor’s advice on how to handle her firearm that contradicted how she had previously been trained. The State, which operates the academy, argued Avenarius signed a “clear and unequivocal” waiver and release of liability.
The Iowa Supreme Court upheld a 35-year minimum prison sentence for a Fairfield juvenile who pleaded guilty to first degree murder for the death of his high school Spanish teacher. In its unanimous decision, the Court rejected the defendant’s argument that, under the Iowa Constitution, the State must present expert testimony showing a minimum sentence is necessary for a juvenile offender.
On Brief: Iowa’s Appellate Blog is devoted to appellate litigation with a focus on the Iowa Supreme Court, the Iowa Court of Appeals, and the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit.
