STATE OF IOWA v. JUSTIN LAMONT WRIGHT (2025)

Court of Appeals of Iowa.

STATE OF IOWA, Plaintiff-Appellee, v. JUSTIN LAMONT WRIGHT, Defendant-Appellant.

No. 23-0968

Decided: January 09, 2025

Considered by Schumacher, P.J., and Badding and Chicchelly, JJ.

Mark C. Meyer, Iowa City, for appellant. Brenna Bird, Attorney General, and Joseph D. Ferrentino, Assistant Attorney General, for appellee.

Justin Lamont Wright appeals his conviction for first-degree murder. Because we lack authority to hear this appeal, we must dismiss.

The State charged Wright with first-degree murder after he shot his girlfriend. A jury convicted him as charged, and Wright appeals.

Wright attempts to put forth an ineffective-assistance-of-counsel claim thinly disguised as a “structural error” argument. But we are not permitted to decide such claims on direct appeal. See Iowa Code § 814.7 (2023) (requiring defendants claiming ineffective assistance to apply for postconviction relief under chapter 822); State v. Treptow, 960 N.W.2d 98, 110 (Iowa 2021) (concluding appellate courts have “no authority to decide a claim of ineffective assistance of counsel on direct appeal”). Because we cannot “provide [Wright] with relief,” we lack jurisdiction to hear this appeal and must dismiss. Treptow, 960 N.W.2d at 110.

APPEAL DISMISSED.

CHICCHELLY, Judge.

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