McElhaney v. Auger
| Decision Date | 18 February 1976 |
| Docket Number | No. 2--57869,2--57869 |
| Citation | 238 N.W.2d 797 |
| Parties | Dennis Ray McELHANEY, Appellant, v. Calvin AUGER, Warden, Iowa State Men's Reformatory, Anamosa, Iowa, Appellee. |
| Court | Iowa Supreme Court |
John C. Platt, Cedar Rapids, for appellant.
Richard C. Turner, Atty. Gen., William D. Scherle, Asst. Atty. Gen., and Eugene J. Kopecky, County Atty., Cedar Rapids, for appellee.
Submitted to REYNOLDSON, Acting C.J., and RAWLINGS, LeGRAND, UHLENHOPP and McCORMICK, JJ.
This is an appeal from denial of postconviction relief. We affirm.
Petitioner's action was predicated upon a claim that his 1966 rape conviction should be set aside because he was subjected to post-arrest lineup procedures which violated the Sixth and Fourteenth Amendments of the United States Constitution. His conviction was affirmed upon appeal. State v. McElhaney, 261 Iowa 199, 153 N.W.2d 715 (1967). No challenge of the lineup was made either at trial or in the direct appeal from conviction. When respondent filed a motion to dismiss based upon these facts, the trial court served petitioner with notice of its intention to dismiss his petition. In resisting, petitioner contended dismissal of his postconviction petition without a hearing would deny him his right to habeas corpus assured in Article I, § 13, of the Constitution of Iowa. He did not assert any excuse for having failed to challenge the lineup at trial or in his appeal. The trial court dismissed the petition, and petitioner appeals.
We have held postconviction relief is unavailable to correct alleged errors which should have been but were not asserted at trial or upon direct appeal. Rinehart v. State, 234 N.W.2d 649 (Iowa 1975); Carstens v. Rans, 210 N.W.2d 663 (Iowa 1973). Petitioner does not attack that principle nor contend it is inapplicable here. Instead, he complains only that Code § 663A.6 which permits dismissal of a postconviction petition upon such a ground without a hearing offends Article I, § 13, of the Constitution of Iowa. The sole question presented in his appeal is whether the dismissal procedure authorized in § 663A.6 infringes Article I, § 13, of the state constitution.
In relevant part, § 663A.6 provides:
Petitioner alleges this provision, employed in the present case, conflicts with Article I, § 13, of the state constitution, which provides:
'The writ of habeas corpus shall not be suspended, or refused when application is made as required by law, unless in case of rebellion, or invasion of the public safety may require it.'
The common law writ of habeas corpus has been supplanted as a means of collateral attack upon conviction and sentence to the extent an equivalent substitute has been provided in Code chapter 663A. Statutory postconviction procedure is an implementation of the right of habeas corpus, not an abrogation or suspension of it. Allen v. State, 217 N.W.2d 528, 531 (Iowa 1974); § 663A.2, The Code.
The crux of petitioner's argument is his contention he would have been accorded a hearing if habeas corpus procedure had been available to him. He alleges he was given less procedurally under chapter 663A than he is assured under Article I, § 13, of the state constitution. We do not agree.
The constitutional guarantee of the right of habeas corpus does not require a hearing...
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State v. Dowell
...habeas corpus. In the postconviction situation, it is available through a postconviction action. § 663A.2, The Code; McElhaney v. Auger, 238 N.W.2d 797, 798 (Iowa 1976). However, even if the accused is released, he must still answer the charge. Even when a violation of the accused's rights ......
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Davis v. State
...of habeas corpus formerly available for challenging the validity of a conviction or sentence. Iowa Code § 663A.2; McElhaney v. Auger, 238 N.W.2d 797, 799 (Iowa 1976); Allen v. State, 217 N.W.2d 528, 531 (Iowa 1974). With this substitution of remedies, the three-year limitation in section 66......
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Clothier v. Solem
...of habeas corpus arises only if the application sets forth facts which, if true, would entitle the applicant to relief. McElhaney v. Auger, 238 N.W.2d 797 (Iowa 1976); State ex rel. Roy v. Tahash, 277 Minn. 238, 152 N.W.2d 301 (1967); Gamron v. Parratt, 199 Neb. 163, 256 N.W.2d 867 (1977). ......
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Berryhill v. State
...State, 327 N.W.2d 216, 217-18 (Iowa 1982) (postconviction relief not available to circumvent statutory requirements); McElhaney v. Auger, 238 N.W.2d 797, 798 (Iowa 1976) (postconviction relief proceedings not available to correct errors which could have been raised on direct appeal). The ru......