This one’s unbelievable. In May 1999 a man walks into a convenience store in Iowa at 4:30 a.m. wearing a paper bag over his head, athletic socks on his hands, and tells the cashier “Trick or treat” and then tells her to give him the money. She gives him the cash. He orders her to life on the floor. She does, and he flees the scene only to be arrested later.
James Edward Hearn was convicted of second degree robbery by a jury. An appeals court, however, cleared his conviction on the grounds that what he did in the convience store didn’t meet the legal test of second degree robbery. In Iowa part of the definition of second degree robbery is that the person being robbed has to have a reasonable fear of “immediate serious injury.”
Having worked many overnight shifts at convenience stores during one summer while I was in college, if someone had come in with a bag on his head and socks on his hands at 4:30 a.m. and asks me to give him the money, I’d have been very tempted to take my chances and just shoot him.
Hopefully the Iowa State Supreme Court will do the sensible thing and overturn the appeals court.