Iowa Code

Iowa Code § 801.5 (2026)

Applicability to offenses committed before the effective date

✓ current as of July 2026

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1. Except as provided in subsections 2 and 3 of this section, Title XVI* does not apply to offenses committed before January 1, 1978. Prosecutions for offenses committed before that date are governed by the prior law, which is continued in effect for that purpose, as if this title* were not in force. For purposes of this section, an offense is committed before said date if any of the elements of the offense occurred before that date.

2. In any case pending on or commenced after said date, involving an offense committed before that date:

a. Upon the request of the defendant a defense or mitigation under this title,* whether specifically provided for herein or based upon the failure of said statutes to define an applicable offense, shall apply; and

b. Upon the request of the defendant and the approval of the court:

(1) Procedural provisions of this title* shall apply insofar as they are justly applicable; and

(2) The court may impose a sentence or suspended imposition of a sentence under the provisions of this title* applicable to the offense and the offender.

3. Provisions of this title* governing the release or discharge of prisoners, probationers, and parolees shall apply to persons under sentence for offenses committed before January 1, 1978, except that the minimum or maximum period of their detention or supervision shall in no case be increased, nor shall the provisions of this title* affect the substantive or procedural validity of any judgment of conviction entered before said date, regardless of the fact that appeal time has not run or that an appeal is pending. [C79, 81, §801.5] *This provision does not include chapters 709A, 718A, 822, 904, 913, and 914, which were moved into Title XVI by the Code editor. Chapters 709A, 718A, 822, 904, 913, and 914 contain the applicable provisions pertaining to those chapters.\n\nTue Dec 09 21:54:30 2025 Iowa Code 2026, Chapter 801 (19, 0) \n

Notes of Decisions

Cited in 2 cases, 1984–1987 · leading case: State v. Florie, 411 N.W.2d 689 (Iowa 1987).

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State v. Florie, 411 N.W.2d 689 (Iowa 1987). “See Iowa Code § 801.5 (1) (1983). The concept of being “held to an *695 swer” in order to trigger the thirty-day period for filing an indictment or information under pre-1978 law was tied to (a) an order by a committing magistrate binding the charges over to a grand jury…”

State v. Koenighain, 356 N.W.2d 237 (Iowa Ct. App. 1984). “Iowa Code § 801.5 (2)(b)(2) (1983). The decision to apply the provisions of the new code in such cases is entirely within the discretion of the trial court.”

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.