State v. Reaves

With today’s decision, Iowa stands alone among all jurisdictions in its refusal to assure or vindicate federal constitutional rights in guilty plea cases.

Since the landmark decision of the United States Supreme Court in Boykin v. Alabama, 395 U.S. 238, 89 S.Ct. 1709, 23 L.Ed.2d 274 (1969), all jurisdictions not already in conformity with its holding have brought their law into compliance with it by judicial decision, statute or rule, or by some combination of these methods. Iowa was in the forefront of this movement with its decision in State v. Sisco, 169 N.W.2d 542 (Iowa 1969). Today, when…