In Iowa why is there are harsher punishment for causing serious injury without intent than with intent?

Question

In Iowa under §708.2 an assault (which is not distinct from battery in Iowa)

with the intent to inflict a serious injury upon another^§708.2(1)

is an aggravated misdemeanor, which is punishable for up to two years in jail with a fine of $625-6,250^§903.1(2).

An assault which

causes bodily injury or mental illness^§708.2(2)

is a serious misdemeanor, which is punishable for up to one year jail with a fine of $315-1,875^§903.1(1).

But if one commits assault

without the intent to inflict serious injury, but who causes serious injury^§708.2(4)

they are guilty of a class "D" felony, which is punishable for up to five years in jail with a fine of $750-7,500^{§902.9(1)(e)}.

This is in contrast to homicides where less intent generally results in a lesser sentence. For instance murder in the first degree is committed by

willfully, deliberately, and with premeditation kills another person^{§707.2(1)(a)}

which is a class "A" felony, which is punishable only by a mandatory life sentence, without the possibility of parole or probation^§902.1(1).

Second degree murder is committed when someone still has malice aforethought, but doesn't meet the requirements of first degree murder. This is a class "B" felony which is punishable with up to 50 years in jail^§707.3.

Voluntary manslaughter is committed when a

person causes the death of another person, under circumstances which would otherwise be murder, if the person causing the death acts solely as the result of sudden, violent, and irresistible passion resulting from serious provocation sufficient to excite such passion in a person and there is not an interval between the provocation and the killing in which a person of ordinary reason and temperament would regain control and suppress the impulse to kill^§707.4(1).

which is a class "C" felony, which is punishable up to 10 years in jail, with a fine of $1,000-$10,000^{§902.9(1)(d)}.

Involuntary manslaughter which

unintentionally causes the death of another person by the commission of a public offense other than a forcible felony or escape^{§707.5(1)(a)}.

is a class "D" felony, while involuntary manslaughter which

unintentionally causes the death of another person by the commission of an act in a manner likely to cause death or serious injury^{§707.5(1)(b)}.

is an aggravated misdemeanor.

So why is it that lacking intent to inflict serious injury, but causing serious injury nonetheless has a harsher punishment than inflicting serious injury with outright intent?

Answer 1

I think you should read this section in conjunction with 708.4:

Any person who does an act which is not justified and which is intended to cause serious injury to another commits willful injury, which is punishable as follows:

1. A class “C” felony, if the person causes serious injury to another.
2. A class “D” felony, if the person causes bodily injury to another.

So a person who commits an assault with the intent to inflict serious injury, and actually does inflict serious injury, will not get away with a 708.2(1) aggravated misdemeanor. They may instead be convicted under 708.4(1), a class C felony, punishable by up to 10 years in prison and a fine of $1,000-$10,000. This is a more serious crime than the class D felony of 708.2(4) for someone who does not intend to cause a serious injury but does so anyway.

As an exercise, you can make yourself a 3x3 grid of all possible combinations of intent and result among "no injury", "bodily injury", "serious injury", and I think you'll find that the severity increases with either worse intent or worse result.

Answer 2

Because what actually happens matters.

An assault with the intent to cause serious injury is not as serious as an assault which actually causes serious injury.

If I intend you serious harm and actually succeed, I will be guilty of assault with intent of serious harm and of assault with serious harm imposed (example: I try to put you in the hospital with a baseball bat and succeed). If I intend you serious harm but I'm not very good at it so I fail to actually hurt you, I am guilty only of assault with intent (example: I try to put you in the hospital with a baseball bat but miss with the bat and only push you around). An assault with no intent of serious injury and no injury imposed would be treated as even lower severity (example: I bow up and push you with my chest).

This is by design. Outside of drug laws, the law generally punishes more severe offenses more severely. An assault when the person assaulted receives a serious injury is more serious than an assault where the person assaulted isn't seriously injured no matter the intent.

We can't compare this to homicide degrees of seriousness because generally there isn't a degree of how dead you are. So the penalties for murder take into account the mens rea, the state of mind of the killer. We can see that the Iowa assault statutes also take into account mens rea, but takes into account the severity of injury more.