Daron Chayton Kent v. State of Iowa , 919 N.W.2d 768 ( 2018 )

IN THE COURT OF APPEALS OF IOWA
No. 17-0981
Filed June 20, 2018
DARON CHAYTON KENT,
Applicant-Appellant,
vs.
STATE OF IOWA,
Respondent-Appellee.
________________________________________________________________
Appeal from the Iowa District Court for Polk County, David M. Porter, Judge.
Daron Kent appeals the summary dismissal of his postconviction-relief
application. AFFIRMED.
Mark C. Smith, State Appellate Defender, and Maria L. Ruhtenberg,
Assistant Appellate Defender, for appellant.
Thomas J. Miller, Attorney General, and Zachary C. Miller, Assistant
Attorney General, for appellee State.
Considered by Vaitheswaran, P.J., Tabor, J., and Scott, S.J.*
*Senior judge assigned by order pursuant to Iowa Code section 602.9206 (2018).
2
SCOTT, Senior Judge.
Daron Kent appeals the summary dismissal of his postconviction-relief
application. On June 9, 2015, the district court imposed sentence on Kent’s
conviction of second-degree robbery. Kent was sentenced to a term of
imprisonment not to exceed ten years, with a mandatory minimum of seven years.
See Iowa Code § 902.12(5) (2015). Kent filed a postconviction-relief application
in November 2016 and an amended application in May 2017. Among his
arguments was a contention that equal protection requires his sentence to be
reconsidered in light of the legislature’s recent amendment to Iowa Code section
902.12. See 2016 Iowa Acts ch. 1104, § 8. The district court granted the State’s
subsequent motion for summary dismissal, concluding the statutory amendment is
to be applied prospectively only.
Having reviewed and considered Kent’s argument on appeal, we repeat our
position that the legislative amendment at issue here does not give rise to equal-
protection infirmities, and we affirm the summary dismissal of Kent’s application
without further opinion pursuant to Iowa Court Rule 21.26(1)(a), (c), and (e). See
Clayton v. Iowa Dist. Ct., 907 N.W.2d 824, 825–30 (Iowa Ct. App. 2017), further
review denied (Jan. 16, 2018); see also Kelly v. State, No. 17-0895, 2018 WL
2230554, at *1–2 (Iowa Ct. App. May 16, 2018); Monroe v. State, No. 17-1266,
2018 WL 2230724, at *1–2 (Iowa Ct. App. May 16, 2018).
AFFIRMED.