One of two men convicted in the Sept. 1981 murders in Council Bluffs of Stanley Fisher and his mother Kate, has had his appeal to for postconviction-relief (PCR) to the Iowa Supreme Court, denied. According to their ruling released today (Friday), an appeal of a Council Bluffs District Court decision was filed by John Lee Hrbek, who was convicted on two counts of Murder in the first degree. Hrbek had sought a review of interlocutory order prohibiting him from filing any additional pro-se supplemental documents in postconviction relief. The court noted he has been litigating a still pending application for postconviction relief, in an attempt to vacate his murder convictions.

The basis of his appeal was an Iowa Legislature-passed and governor signed, July 1, 2019, Omnibus Crime Bill. That bill – which was signed while Hrbek’s PCR case was pending – prohibits postconviction relief applicants represented by counsel, to filing “any pro se document, including an application, brief, reply brief, or motion, in any Iowa court.” Pro-se refers to law that allows a defendant or plaintiff to argue on their behalf in a legal proceeding.

His appeal involved the applicability and constitutionality of the new law, as applied to pending postconviction relief appeals. A month after the law was passed, the district court entered an order prohibiting Hrbek from filing any additional pro-se documents in his case, and ordered him instead to forward any such documents to his legal counsel. The Iowa Supreme Court affirmed the District Court’s decision in the matter and remanded the case back to the lower court. In its verdict, the High Court said there cannot be different sets of rules for cases based on when laws were passed.