Wendell Harrington
v.
State of Iowa
Appellant
Wendell Harrington
Appellee
State of Iowa
Attorney for the Appellant
Francis Hurley
Attorney for the Appellee
Bridget A. Chambers, Assistant Attorney General
Court of Appeals
Court of Appeals Opinion
Opinion Number:
Date Published:
Summary
Appeal from the Iowa District Court for Polk County, Robert B. Hanson, Judge. AFFIRMED. Considered by Bower, C.J., and Greer and Badding, JJ. Opinion by Greer, J. Chicchelly, J., and Gamble, S.J., take no part. (33 pages)
Wendell Harrington appeals the denial of his application for postconviction relief (PCR) following his 2012 convictions for thefts, burglaries, and eluding. His claims include (1) a constitutional challenge to his statutory inability to submit pro se appellate briefs following the 2019 creation of Iowa Code section 822.3A; (2) that he should have been granted a new trial following the discovery of new evidence regarding drug use by an officer involved in the identification of Harrington before his arrest; (3) that the State suppressed that evidence about the officer; (4) that he should have been allowed to introduce additional depositions and DNA evidence into the PCR record after it closed; (5) that his PCR counsel was ineffective for not seeking the DNA evidence sooner; (6) that the district court failed to rule on his pro se issues regarding suppression of evidence of another suspect; (7) that his PCR counsel was ineffective in arguing the existence of the other suspect; (8) that his PCR counsel was ineffective for failing to file a deposition transcript and report regarding that DNA evidence; (9) that all of his attorneys were ineffective in not arguing that his past convictions of burglary and theft were not crimes of dishonesty and, therefore, should not have been admitted as impeachment evidence against him at the underlying criminal trial; and (10) that the PCR trial judge should have recused himself. OPINION HOLDS: We affirm the denial of Harrington’s application for PCR.
