Iowa Criminal Law: timing of felony commission irrelevant to deny deferred judgment if convicted

The Iowa Supreme Court in State v. Gardner in March 2025 affirmed denial of a deferred judgment, or, front-loaded expungement, where a criminal defendant had been convicted of a felony while the prosecution in question was still pending. Under Iowa criminal law, felons are ineligible for a deferred judgment regardless of when they committed the felony.

In Gardner, a defendant entered into a joint, or “global” plea agreement with Johnson and Linn County prosecutors.  His intent was to seek deferred judgments in both prosecutions. Deferred judgments allow the judge to “pause” the prosecution so the deferred judgment grantee can prove they are a good rehabilitative risk while on probation. Once deferred judgment probation is successfully completed, the judge will expunge the public record of the prosecution and seal the public court file.

Sentencing in the Johnson County matter occurred before Linn County. However, the Linn County crime occurred before the Johnson County crime.

The Johnson County judge denied the request for a deferred judgment and entered a felony conviction. The defendant then appeared ineligible to receive a deferred judgment in Linn-- even though the Johnson County crime to which he pled occurred before the Linn County sentencing that occurred later.

At the Linn County sentencing, the defendant argued it was the commission of the offense not the conviction that determined eligibility for a deferred judgment. Everyone agreed the commission of the Linn County offense predated the Johnson County case.

The Gardner defendant argued he should be eligible for a deferred judgment in Linn County because he committed the Linn County offense first. He was not a felon before he committed the Linn offense and should therefore be eligible for a deferred judgment in Linn.

The Linn County prosecutor argued that he was no longer eligible to receive a deferred judgment because he was a felon by the time he reached sentencing in the Linn County case.

The District Court, examining the language of the statute, held that the Legislature “use[d] different language that distinguish[es] the ‘prior conviction’ from “prior commission of an offense,” so those are two different phrases.”

It rendered the Gardner defendant ineligible to receive a deferred judgment in Linn. The Defendant appealed and the Iowa Supreme Court agreed with the District Court.

Because the defendant was challenging the sentence and not the guilty plea itself, the Iowa Supreme Court held good cause existed to examine and rule on the lower court decision.

The Iowa Supreme Court agreed with the District Court, writing, “[t]he district court correctly interpreted the plain language of section 907.3(1)(a)(1)," which excluded felons based on felony status, not when the felony was committed.

Moving forward, it should be clear that anyone with a felony conviction, regardless about the timing of the commission of the offense, is ineligible for a deferred judgment.

NOTE: David A. Cmelik Law PLC took no part in the district court proceedings nor appeal in the Gardner decision.