OKOBOJI – The Iowa Court of Appeals announced this week that it will hear oral arguments in an appeal from a convicted murderer from Waterloo, who killed a Mason City man in 2012 by using a knife during a fist fight.
On Friday, May 30, the Iowa Court of Appeals will hear oral arguments at the Arrowwood Resort and Conference Center, 1405 Highway 71, Okoboji. The panel of Court of Appeals Judges will be comprised of Gayle Nelson Vogel, Richard H. Doyle, and Mary Tabor.
Farnsworth stabbed Ian Decker, 24, of Mason City to death on April 14th, 2012 during a fight over a girlfriend near the 600 block of East State Street, just west of the railroad underpass.
Months later, a jury convicted Farnsworth of 2nd degree murder. Farnsworth claimed self-defense during his trial. In this appeal, Farnsworth claims (1) prosecutorial misconduct in arguing defendant was the aggressor in response to Farnsworth’s self-defense assertion, (2) the court abused its discretion in granting the State’s challenge for cause of a jury panel member, and (3) the State “unconstitutionally used the defendant’s silence against him” during trial, when it questioned an officer about inconsistencies in Farnsworth’s various statements to police after he waived his Miranda rights by choosing to speak with the police.
CONVICTED MURDERER APPEALING VERDICT
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The Iowa Court of Appeals is an intermediate appellate court. It reviews appeals from trial court decisions that the supreme court has transferred to the court of appeals. A decision of the Iowa Court of Appeals is final unless reviewed by the Iowa Supreme Court on grant of further review. The majority of appeals filed in Iowa are decided by the court of appeals. Last year, the Iowa Court of Appeals issued 1,303 opinions.
As an appellate court, the Iowa Court of Appeals does not preside over trials. Court of appeals proceedings do not involve witnesses, juries, new evidence, or court reporters. Instead, the court reviews the written record of the trial court to determine whether any significant legal errors occurred.
The court of appeals decides cases with randomly selected panels that change in composition every three months. Cases are assigned for opinion writing randomly in equal numbers to each judge on the court. Each judge on the court authors about 120 opinions per year. This figure does not include dissents and special concurrences each judge might write. In addition, each judge reviews cases decided by the other panels of the court.
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