State of Iowa v. Brian Patrick Clemens

MANSFIELD, Justice.

I. Introduction.

What is a “criminal case”? Today, we are asked to answer this seemingly simple question in the context of Iowa’s recently enacted expungement law. That law mandates expungement of the record when “[t]he criminal case contains one or more criminal charges in which an acquittal was entered for all criminal charges, or in which all criminal charges were otherwise dismissed.” Iowa Code § 901C.2(l)(a)(l) (2017).

In 2011, the defendant in this case was charged with several aggravated misdemeanors in a multicount trial information. At approximately the same time, he…