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State v. Corwin9/7/2000
4 L. Ed. 2d 1109, 1120 (1960)).
The State argued in the district court, and now urges on appeal, that section 910.3B is remedial in nature, not punitive, so the court was correct to reject Corwin's ex post facto argument. Since the entry of the district court's decision, however, this court has found that section 910.3B bears the hallmarks of a penal statute. State v. Izzolena, 609 N.W.2d 541, 549 (Iowa 2000). We observed that the statute "reveals several punitive elements," see id. at 548, and concluded it serves not only a remedial purpose but accomplishes the goals of retribution and deterrence normally associated with punishment. Id. at 549. We thus characterized the statute's minimum threshold of $150,000 as a "fine" subject to scrutiny under the Excessive Fines Clauses of our federal and state constitutions. Id.
Our decision in Izzolena controls the case before us. Although focused on an Excessive Fines Clause challenge, our analysis in Izzolena rested on the premise that the legislative aim of section 910.3B was to enhance the punishment for crimes resulting in death, thereby deterring such conduct in others. That analysis applies with equal force to Corwin's ex post facto challenge. Given section 910.3B's purpose, the State was not at liberty to seek enforcement of the statute's penalty in connection with a crime that predated its enactment. See Hills, 534 N.W.2d at 642 (where essential aim of amended sentencing statute is punitive, ex post facto principles prohibit its application to offenses committed before its effective date).
The crimes for which Corwin stands convicted were committed in 1996. Section 910.3B was enacted in 1997. Because section 910.3B makes more burdensome the penalty suffered by Corwin for crimes he committed before the statute was enacted, it cannot be applied to him without violating constitutional norms. We therefore vacate that portion of the district court's sentence that mandated restitution under section 910.3B and remand for the entry of a corrected judgment.
SENTENCE VACATED; REMANDED WITH INSTRUCTIONS.
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