Iowa Code » Chapter 712 — ARSON
Iowa Code

Iowa Code § 712.8 (2026)

Threats

✓ current as of July 2026
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Any person who threatens to place or attempts to place any incendiary or explosive device or material, or any destructive substance or device in any place where it will endanger persons or property, commits a class “D” felony. [C71, 73, 75, 77, §697.7; C79, 81, §712.8] Referred to in §712.9\n\nTue Dec 09 21:56:23 2025 Iowa Code 2026, Chapter 712 (20, 0) 3 ARSON, §712.10

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Notes of Decisions
Cited in 9 cases, 1997–2019 · leading case: State of Iowa v. Jeffrey Alan Soboroff, 798 N.W.2d 1 (Iowa 2011).
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State of Iowa v. Jeffrey Alan Soboroff, 798 N.W.2d 1 (Iowa 2011). · cites it 56× “Iowa Code § 712.8 (emphasis added); Cole v.”
State v. Milner, 571 N.W.2d 7 (Iowa 1997). · cites it 60× “See Iowa Code § 712.8 (1995). He appeals, claiming (1) the evidence was insufficient to support his conviction, and (2) the statute under which he was convicted is overbroad and vague.”
State of Iowa v. Darrell Allen Showens, 845 N.W.2d 436 (Iowa 2014). · cites it 4× “2d 7 (Iowa 1997) (quoting Iowa Code § 712.8 ). To avoid the concern that the statute might cover jokes, idle talk, or political hyperbole, we held the “prohibited statements must be understandable as a threat by a reasonable person of ordinary intelligence.”
State of Iowa v. John Robert Hoyman, 863 N.W.2d 1 (Iowa 2015). · cites it 4× “at 298 , it also bears emphasis that the converse is true: An instruction is not necessarily adequate just because it repeats what the statute says.”
State of Iowa v. Quinten Brice McMurry, 925 N.W.2d 592 (Iowa 2019). · cites it 2× “7 (2016), threats to place an incendiary or explosive device in violation of section 712.8, and harassment in violation of section 708.”
State v. Button, 622 N.W.2d 480 (Iowa 2001). · cites it 2× “at 14 (interpreting the threat of arson statute, Iowa Code section 712.8 (1995)). “A ‘true threat’ is a statement that an ordinary, reasonable person, familiar with the context in which the statement was made, would interpret as a threat.”
State of Iowa v. Paul Joseph Hopkins (Iowa Ct. App. 2018). · cites it 2× “2d 1, 8-9 (Iowa 2011) 4 (concluding defendant was prejudiced by counsel’s failure to request a definition of threat under a different Code provision—section 712.8—where there was evidence the threat might not be taken seriously and was not intentionally disseminated); State v.”
State of Iowa v. Jonathan James Elphic (Iowa Ct. App. 2015). · cites it 2× “2d 7, 10 (Iowa 1997) (interpreting “threat” in Iowa Code section 712.8)). If a reasonable person would view the expression as a joke, idle talk, or statements of political hyperbole, it is not a “true threat.”
Amended July 13, 2015 State of Iowa v. John Robert Hoyman (Iowa 2015). · cites it 2× “Although section 712.8 does not define the term “threats” or “threatens,” we held the jury instructions needed to define the term and their failure to do so necessitated a new trial.”
Annotations are extracted automatically from the opinions in the Syfert caselaw corpus and ranked by authority, recency, and treatment. Dots show Syfertize treatment of the citing case itself.