Bonilla v. Iowa Bd. of Parole

• Decision Date: 28 June 2019
• Docket Number: No. 18-0477,18-0477
• Parties: Julio BONILLA, Appellant, v. IOWA BOARD OF PAROLE, Appellee.
• Court: Iowa Supreme Court

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Julio BONILLA, Appellant,
v.
IOWA BOARD OF PAROLE, Appellee.

No. 18-0477

Supreme Court of Iowa.

Filed June 28, 2019

Rita Bettis Austen of ACLU of Iowa Foundation, Des Moines, Steven Macpherson Watt of ACLU Foundation, New York, New York, Angela L. Campbell of Dickey & Campbell Law Firm, P.L.C., Des Moines, and Gordon E. Allen, Johnston, for appellant.

Thomas J. Miller, Attorney General, and John R. Lundquist, Assistant Attorney General, for appellee.

Brent Michael Pattison of Drake Legal Clinic, Des Moines, Marsha L. Levick of Juvenile Law Center, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and Benjamin G. Bradshaw, Kimberly Cullen, and Kendall N. Collins of O'Melveny & Myers, LLP, Washington, D.C., for amicus curiae Juvenile Law Center.

John S. Allen and Bram T.B. Elias of University of Iowa College of Law Clinical Law Programs, Iowa City, and Sarah French Russell of Quinnipiac University School of Law Legal Clinic, Hamden, Connecticut, for amici curiae Juvenile Sentencing Project and Campaign for the Fair Sentencing of Youth.

APPEL, Justice.

In this case, Julio Bonilla, the petitioner, convicted of kidnapping for an act committed when he was sixteen years old, brought a petition for judicial review in district court pursuant to the Iowa Administrative Procedures Act, Iowa Code section 17A.19 (2016), challenging the manner in which the Iowa Parole Board (Board) considers whether persons convicted of offenses while a juvenile should be granted parole.

Specifically, Bonilla sought a declaratory judgment that a variety of substantive and procedural rights are required when a juvenile offender is considered for parole under article I, sections 9 (due process), 10 (right to counsel), and 17 (cruel and unusual punishment) of the Iowa Constitution and the Eighth Amendment (cruel and unusual punishment) and the Fourteenth Amendment (due process) to the Federal Constitution. In addition, Bonilla sought an

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order remanding the matter back to the Board and requiring it to provide him with the procedural rights requested in his petition. Bonilla further sought attorney fees and costs.

The Board moved to dismiss the petition. The district court denied the motion to dismiss. The district court later proceeded to rule in favor of the Board on the merits. Bonilla appeals. For the reasons expressed below, we affirm.

I. Factual and Procedural Background.

In 2005, Bonilla was convicted of kidnapping in the first degree. His criminal conviction arose from a New Year’s Eve abduction of a pregnant sixteen-year-old girl who was grabbed off the street while she walked home, thrown into Bonilla’s vehicle, and, over a four-hour period, hit, slapped, hair-pulled, bitten on the face and neck, and raped. After four or five hours, the victim was ultimately thrown out of the vehicle without her shoes or underwear, with the shout "Happy New Year."

Bonilla was sixteen years old when he committed the crime. He was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole (LWOP). In 2005, Bonilla began serving his prison sentence at Anamosa State Penitentiary. In 2008, Bonilla was transferred to Fort Madison after twice fighting other inmates in gang-related incidents.

Following the elimination of LWOP for juvenile nonhomicide offenders by the United States Supreme Court in Graham v. Florida , 560 U.S. 48, 74–75, 130 S. Ct. 2011, 2030, 176 L.Ed.2d 825 (2010), and after this court held that the principles of Graham apply retroactively to Bonilla, Bonilla v. State , 791 N.W.2d 697, 700–01 (Iowa 2010), he was resentenced on April 29, 2011 by the district court to life with the possibility of parole. The district court, however, wrote a letter to the Board that stated,

I am also enclosing for your review my Findings of Fact, Conclusions of Law and Ruling entered on February 25, 2005. I would strongly suggest that you carefully review the Findings of Fact set forth in my ruling paying special attention to what this defendant and his friends suffered this victim to endure for approximately 4-5 hours.

After reviewing the matters I have discussed above I am sure you will understand why I am recommending that under no circumstances should [Bonilla] be considered for any type of early release or parole.

After his resentencing in 2011, and beginning in 2012, Bonilla began to receive annual parole reviews by the Board.

According to Bonilla’s disciplinary summary, he received additional disciplinary reports after we ordered resentencing in 2010. Bonilla received additional major reports, including reports for possession of cocaine, possession of a "hit" note,¹ possession of pornography, bartering goods, possession of marijuana, STG (security threat group) show of force, and running a gambling ring. Since 2014, however, Bonilla has not received a new major report. He began to receive glowing accounts of his activities in prison.

At his annual review on June 24, 2015, Bonilla was denied parole as in previous years. Among other things, the Board noted,

Your record of major or minor reports suggests you are not prepared for a successful return to the community. The Board of Parole needs to see a period of behavior which is free from institutional

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reports prior to considering you for an early release.

As Bonilla approached his annual review date in June of 2016, the Board prepared a release plan for Bonilla. The release plan noted that his recent adjustment had been outstanding. The release plan recommended that Bonilla complete the Sex Offender Treatment Program (SOTP) and the Thinking for Change program (TFC), along with a significant period of gradual release, prior to being paroled. The release plan noted that a psychiatric examination had occurred on April 25, 2016, which revealed nothing notable.

As his 2016 annual review date approached, Bonilla filed nine motions in connection with his annual review. In the motions, Bonilla sought (i) appointment of counsel at state expense, (ii) provision of an independent psychological evaluation at state expense, (iii) an in-person parole review hearing and interview, (iv) an opportunity to present evidence at the parole hearing, (v) access to information related to his parole review and a right to challenge the information, (vi) exclusion of all nonverifiable evidence, (vii) proper consideration of mitigation factors of youth, (viii) access to rehabilitative treatment and programming, and (ix) establishment of procedures in the event of denial of parole.

The Board’s counsel responded to Bonilla’s motions on June 22. The Board’s counsel informed Bonilla that the Board agreed to continue his annual review until July 28. The Board’s counsel noted there was no motion practice in connection with annual reviews and the Board would log the filings as correspondence in support of release. The Board’s counsel also stated, "I consider the constitutional issues raised in those motion[s] to have been presented to the Board for exhaustion purposes."

On July 13, the Board produced "copies of records pertaining to Julio Bonilla ... that are available to the Iowa Board of Parole for use in its review of Mr. Bonilla for parole release." The records produced included prison disciplinary rulings, other notes related to Bonilla’s conduct in prison, parole release plans, and psychological and psychiatric evaluations. The Board declined to produce "any victim statement" and Bonilla’s presentence investigation report.

In addition to the document disclosure, the Board permitted counsel for Bonilla to provide a written statement in support of his request for release. The Board further allowed counsel to appear in person at the 2016 annual review.

Bonilla’s annual review occurred on July 28. It lasted about thirty minutes and was transcribed. Bonilla’s counsel directed the Board’s attention to her client’s rehabilitative progress. She stated that Bonilla would benefit from SOTP and TFC. She added that Bonilla, a native of El Salvador, was in a unique position because the immigration authorities had a detainer on him, and that upon his release, he would be transferred from custody and removed from the United States "pretty quickly."

After Bonilla’s counsel’s presentation, the members of the Board spoke about Bonilla. Three Board members recognized that Bonilla had shown some great improvement over the past year and a half. Board members also agreed that he could benefit from SOTP and TFC. But Board members expressed concern about Bonilla’s high security level at the Iowa State Penitentiary in Fort Madison. The chair of the Board contrasted Bonilla with other juvenile offenders convicted of class "A" felonies, noting, "The big difference between them and Mr. Bonilla is quite frankly that institutional disciplinary record. Those individuals did not have as lengthy

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of an institutional disciplinary record in the immediate past as Mr. Bonilla has."

At the conclusion of the review, the Board voted to deny Bonilla parole. The chair declared that they would "like to see him complete treatment" and "continue[ ] good behavior." A formal written denial followed the same day.

On August 24, the Board...