IN THE SUPREME COURT OF IOWA
No. 16–0860
Filed August 31, 2018
CHARLES NICHOLES,
Appellant,
vs.
STATE OF IOWA,
Appellee.
On review from the Iowa Court of Appeals.
Appeal from the Iowa District Court for Dallas County, Gregory A.
Hulse, Judge.
An applicant requests further review of a court of appeals decision
affirming the district court’s denial of his application for postconviction
relief. DECISION OF COURT OF APPEALS VACATED; DISTRICT
COURT JUDGMENT AFFIRMED.
Susan R. Stockdale, Windsor Heights, for appellant.
Thomas J. Miller, Attorney General, and Kyle P. Hanson, Assistant
Attorney General, for appellee.
2
PER CURIAM.
We granted the State’s petition for rehearing and now withdraw our
original opinion. On further consideration, we vacate the decision of the
court of appeals because it concluded Charles Nicholes’s plea of guilty did
not allow him to make an absolute innocence claim. See Schmidt v. State,
909 N.W.2d 778, 798 (Iowa 2018).
We affirm, however, the district court’s decision dismissing
Nicholes’s postconviction action on its merits. The district court
concluded,
However, [Nicholes] openly concedes that he was aware his
trial counsel had not yet fully interviewed witnesses at the
time of his plea, and that the [Nicholes] instead made the
decision to plead guilty. . . . [Nicholes] certainly could have
raised this issue in a postconviction proceeding within three
years from his conviction “and thus [the issue was] available
to be addressed then.” Lopez-Penaloza v. State, 804 N.W.2d
537, 542 (Iowa 2011).
We agree with these findings of fact and its conclusion of law.
Accordingly, we affirm the judgment of the district court.
DECISION OF COURT OF APPEALS VACATED; DISTRICT COURT
JUDGMENT AFFIRMED.
This opinion shall not be published.