Mead v. Iowa State Board of Parole

HARRIS, Justice.

An Iowa statute provides that a person serving a prison sentence for a felony conviction, who has a record of a prior conviction for a forcible felony or crime of similar gravity, may not be paroled until half the maximum sentence has been served. The question here is whether the statute can withstand due process and equal protection challenges under both our own and the federal constitutions. We hold that it can.

The petitioners are inmates of Iowa’s correctional institutions who have been denied consideration for parole because of the challenged statute. It provides in…