STATE OF IOWA, Plaintiff, vs. IOWA DISTRICT COURT FOR JONES COUNTY
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IN THE SUPREME COURT OF IOWA
No. 07–0863
Filed January 23, 2009
STATE OF IOWA,
Plaintiff,
vs.
IOWA DISTRICT COURT FOR JONES COUNTY,
Defendant.
Certiorari to the Iowa District Court for Jones County, David M.
Remley, Judge.
Original certiorari action brought by State to challenge legality of
district
court’s
decision
in
postconviction
relief
proceeding,
holding
application of Iowa Code section 903A.2 (2001) to inmate violated Ex Post
Facto Clause. WRIT ANNULLED.
Thomas J. Miller, Attorney General, and Forrest Guddall, for plaintiff.
Philip B. Mears of Mears Law Office, Iowa City, for defendant.
2
PER CURIAM.
The State brought this original certiorari action challenging the legality
of the district court’s decision granting postconviction relief to two inmates.
The inmates, Terry Jones and Leonidas Psomas, were each serving a twentyfive-year sentence for 1996 convictions of second-degree sexual abuse.1 In
2006, as a result of their refusal to participate in sex offender treatment, the
department of corrections (DOC) determined Jones and Psomas were
ineligible to receive further earned-time credits.
See Iowa Code § 903A.2
(2005) (providing for reduction in sentence for good conduct and satisfactory
participation in specified programs).
Jones and Psomas claimed the
application of this statute, as amended in 2001 and 2005, violated the
Ex Post Facto Clause because the offenses for which they were incarcerated
were committed prior to the amendments.
The inmates’ claims are identical to the claim raised in State v. Iowa
District Court for Henry County, ___ N.W.2d ___ (Iowa 2009). In that case, we
held the district court correctly determined the DOC’s application of
amended section 903A.2 to inmates whose crimes predated the amendments
violates the constitutional prohibition of ex post facto laws. Our ruling in
Henry County controls here. Therefore, we conclude the district court did
not act illegally in ordering the State to restore the earned-time credits of
Jones and Psomas retroactive to the date on which the earned-time-credit
accrual was suspended in each case. We annul the writ of certiorari.
WRIT ANNULLED.
This opinion is not to be published.
1The
sentences.
record does not reveal the dates of the inmates’ offenses that resulted in these
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