Preview:

IN THE SUPREME COURT OF IOWA
No. 125 / 05-0485 Filed December 29, 2006 WAYNE ATWOOD, ARTHUR JENNINGS, DANIEL BELLMAN, and JOHN CARMODY, on behalf of themselves and all present and future Iowa Code Chapter 229A pretrial detainees, and LOREN G. HUSS, JR., JOHN HENRY NACHTIGALL, TIMOTHY GUSMAN and LANNY TAUTE, on behalf of themselves and those similarly situated, Plaintiffs, vs. THE HONORABLE THOMAS J. VILSACK, et al., Defendants.

Certified questions of law from the United States District Court for the Southern District of Iowa, Robert W. Pratt, Judge.

Pre-trial detainees awaiting trial on sexually violent predator petitions brought a class action in the United States District Court for the Southern District of Iowa against the Iowa Department of Corrections and others. The federal court certified a legal question to this court. QUESTION ANSWERED. CERTIFIED

Randall C. Wilson of the Iowa Civil Liberties Union Foundation, Des Moines, and Jon M. Kinnamon of Kinnamon, Kinnamon, Russo, Meyer & Keegan, Cedar Rapids, for plaintiffs.

Thomas J. Miller, Attorney General, Gordon E. Allen, Deputy Attorney General, and Mark Hunacek, Assistant Attorney General, for defendants.

2 HECHT, Justice. The United States District Court for the Southern District of Iowa has certified to us the following question: Are pre-trial detainees being held pursuant to Iowa Code chapter 229A (2005) entitled to bail under either the common law or the Iowa Constitution? I. Background Facts and Proceedings.

The petitioners are a certified class consisting of " `[a]ll present and future pretrial detainees held by the Iowa Department of Corrections, awaiting hearing on their Iowa Code [c]hapter 229A petition, or who were committed pursuant to Iowa Code [c]hapter 229A.' " Atwood v. Vilsack, 338 F. Supp. 2d 985, 990 (S.D. Iowa 2004). They filed suit in the United States District Court for the Southern District of Iowa against the State of Iowa's departments and officials responsible for implementing the pre-trial detention provisions of Iowa Code chapter 229A, the Sexually Violent Predator (SVP) Act. Id. at 990-91. The petitioners claimed: (1) the State's failure to initiate SVP proceedings until immediately prior to the discharge of criminal sentences violated their federal right to a speedy trial and right to be free from imposition of double jeopardy, (2) pre-trial detention was in contravention of chapter 229A, (3) pre-trial detention violated their federal and state due process rights to bail, (4) pre-trial detention violated their rights under the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), and (5) the conditions of their detention violated their federal due process rights. Id. at 993-1008. The court certified the question of state law to us. Id. at 1008. Petitioners urge us to hold the common law entitles detainees to bail during the pre-trial stage of proceedings brought under chapter 229A. They also assert numerous provisions of the Iowa Constitution entitle them to bail during that stage: article 1, section 12 (bail guarantee clause); article

3 1, section 17 (proscribing excessive bail); article 1, section 9 (due process of law); article 1, section 10 (rights of persons accused); article 1, section 21 (banning bills of attainder); article 1, section 8 (protecting personal security); article 1, section 1 (inalienable rights clause); and article 1, section 25 (unenumerated rights clause). For the reasons that follow, we conclude persons detained before trial pursuant to Iowa Code chapter 229A are not entitled to bail under either the common law or under these provisions of the Iowa Constitution. II. A. Discussion. Common Law Bail Claim.

We have previously acknowledged that although not expressly declared by our statutes or constitution to be part of Iowa law, "the common law has always been . . . in force in Iowa." Iowa Civil Liberties Union v. Critelli, 244 N.W.2d 564, 568 (Iowa 1976). The petitioners claim a common law right to bail in the interim between the Iowa district court's finding of probable cause to believe they are sexually violent predators 1 and the subsequent trials to determine whether they are, in fact, sexually violent predators. They cite Blackstone for the proposition that at common law all defendants in civil cases were bailable. See William Blackstone, 4

Commentaries 294 (1769). Because we are not persuaded, however, that the common law authorized civil commitment of sexually violent predators for long-term care and treatment, any reference in Blackstone's

Code section 229A.5(1) requires the district court, upon the filing of a petition alleging a person is a SVP, to make a preliminary determination of whether the State has shown probable cause to believe the person is a SVP. If the court preliminarily finds probable cause to believe the person is a SVP, the person shall be taken into custody. Id. The detainee is thereafter entitled to a probable cause hearing. Iowa Code

Download WAYNE ATWOOD, ARTHUR JENNINGS, DANIEL BELLMAN, and JOHN CARMODY, on behalf of th

Iowa Law