IOWA CHAMPION

Pierre Pierce Cleared to go France

A 2-1 split decision from the Iowa Court of Appeals went in favor of former Iowa Hawkeye basketball player Pierre Pierce, allowing the convicted sex offender to travel to France to play basketball.  A District Court judge had previously ruled that Pierce should be allowed to live in work in France while under supervision in Central Iowa.  The Iowa Attorney General had filed for an emergency stay of that order, which was denied today.

While many people may see this ruling as special treatment, it really isn't as bad as it would appear. It is not uncommon for a person placed on probation to be supervised in another jurisdiction, or even to remain on probation in Iowa when they live in another state such as California or Texas.  The difference with Pierce is that his conviction included a felony, Burglary in the Third Degree.  So is that special treatment?

In every felony case that I have ever done, if the defendant is on probation in Iowa and wants to move to another jurisdiction, he must apply for a transfer of the probation through a process called an "Interstate Compact Transfer". That does not appear to have happened in this case.  But, if you look back on Iowa Courts Online, it appears that other previous requests for travel have been denied.  It is hard to say for sure without reading the order from the District Court and knowing what evidence was presented to the Court, but it is certainly unusual.

The real issue for me is that high profile cases with "unusual" results do two things.  First, it creates the appearance of impropriety because the general public and media are not going to know all of the facts and makes people generally lose confidence in equal justice.  Second, it makes it harder for all criminal defense attorneys because it creates unreasonable expectations in their cases. Everyone now wants the same thing "that basketball player got". One of the hardest things that a criminal defense attorney has to deal with is unreasonable expectations on the part of some clients. I always try to put each defendant's unique situation in perspective, but cases like Pierre Pierce, where someone has heard about them but knows nothing of the facts, law, and legal issues involved can make that difficult.

The case is under an application for further review, so it is not completely settled yet.  The Iowa Supreme Court may review the Court of Appeals ruling or they may let it stand as is. 

Is it better to be in prison in California or parole in Minnesota?

It was an up and down week for Sarah Jane Olson.  She's the 1970's radical turned Minnesota PTA mom who was put in prison about six years ago for planting a dud pipe bomb under a cop car in California. She also later plead guilty to her involvement in a bank robbery turned murder case.  The "up part" for Ms. Olson came when she was paroled by the California Department of Corrections.  The "down part" came when she was rearrested at Los Angeles International Airport.  It seems the pencil pushers in the parole office were confused about the two different sentences so they thought Ms. Olson was eligible for parole. The problem was she's not supposed to be out for another year. I don't think I'm the only one that believes there shouldn't be take-backs in the parole process.

Iowa's system of indeterminate sentencing reduces the chance of errors like that happening here.  Unless you commit a serious criminal offense like attempted murder, robbery, or sexual assault (or a drug offense) there are no mandatory minimums in Iowa.  If a person goes to prison they are technically eligible for parole as soon as they walk through the doors at the classification center in Oakdale.  If the parole board thinks your ready to be out, pack your bags.  Despite what some prosecutors and judges think, most prisoners in Iowa don't immediately parole.  Most will have to do some programming like substance abuse treatment or anger management and the wait lists for those programs are usually long.

I will probably post in the future about exactly how the parole process works and about calculations of good time and discharge dates etc.  For now if you want to look at how much time people serve on various crimes before paroling you can look at the Annual Report from the Iowa Board of Parole. It is a very useful tool to criminal defense attorneys and their clients that are looking at prison.