Editorial: Surely Iowa can do better by abuse victims such as Pieper Lewis
Lawmakers and other authorities have the power and discretion to ensure sex trafficking survivors who lash out are treated fairly and compassionately.
Iowa is a place where drivers who come across an unlawful protest have some protection from liability for what happens if they drive into a crowd.
It's a place where people don't have to retreat before legally using deadly force if they reasonably believe it’s necessary because someone's safety is at risk (they don't have to be correct).
But those protections for people who are afraid apparently do not extend to survivors of repeated abuse who resort to violence, including children being used for sex.
Lawmakers and other authorities have the power and discretion to ensure people are treated fairly and compassionately after such tragedies.
That should be one of the lessons drawn from an investigation by the Register's Philip Joens into the prosecution of Pieper Lewis, who was 15 last year when she stabbed a Des Moines man 30 times. Her lawyers say that man had raped her multiple times after she was kicked out of her home and taken in by another man who coerced her into intercourse with men. She killed Zachary Brooks after he raped her and then fell asleep, she said.
Police never looked into whether trafficking had occurred, the lawyers contend.
Lewis has pleaded guilty to involuntary manslaughter and willful injury and remains in the custody of the juvenile justice system. Next summer, just before her 18th birthday, she will learn whether she’ll be sentenced to up to 20 years in prison as an adult.
The Register typically does not identify sexual assault survivors or youthful offenders, but Lewis agreed to be named in Joens' article.
As with many violent deaths, the circumstances here are complicated. Nobody deserves a death of retribution, whether at the hands of the government or anyone else. And nobody would argue that law enforcement, prosecutors or judges have an easy job in establishing culpability when they must untangle evidence of abuse on one hand and a horrific stabbing on the other.
But easy or not, it is their job, and experience suggests that Iowa law and authorities' habits could be changed for the better.
Some elements of Lewis' case are reminiscent of a 2017 Des Moines killing. Sera Alexander, then 29, was at home when her stepfather startled her; she shot and killed him. Alexander mistakenly believed her stepfather, a serial domestic abuser, was violating a no-contact order (in fact, it had just been lifted).
Her lawyers argued the killing was justified as self-defense based on a history of abuse. But Alexander was charged with first-degree murder for nearly six months before eventually pleading guilty to involuntary manslaughter and reckless use of a firearm.
She spent two years in prison before being released on parole last year. According to online court records, she has paid $2,460.90 out of a required $150,000 in restitution to her stepfather's estate.
Lewis will almost certainly be saddled with the same mandatory debt.
Shared Hope International, a nonprofit that focuses on the trafficking of youths and children, released reports last month that placed Iowa in the middle of the pack among states for the strength of its laws to combat trafficking. Only 11 states received passing grades, none better than a C.
The nonprofit gives detailed prescriptions for revisions that would better provide safety and services for victims instead of doing nothing or, worse, charging them with prostitution. Its report is important reading for all of Iowa's policymakers.
In the immediate term, lawmakers could make several changes quickly in 2022:
- Amend Iowa Code Chapter 710A to provide trafficking survivors "with an affirmative defense to violent felonies committed as a result of their trafficking victimization," as Shared Hope phrases it. Currently in Iowa, such a defense is available only when victims can prove they were being threatened with "serious and imminent injury."
- Give discretion to judges concerning restitution in homicide cases. For a teenager like Lewis, a $150,000 obligation of any kind could crush her ability to recover after her incarceration, without even addressing the emotional burden of having her earnings seized in the name of a man who harmed her.
- Provide a standing appropriation to the Iowa Office to Combat Human Trafficking; it received one-time money this past spring.
Prosecutors, sheriffs and police chiefs should also take it upon themselves to engage with experts and defense attorneys to learn more about trafficking and better train their deputies on recognizing it, detaining the perpetrators and providing appropriate support to survivors. Only 34 people have been charged under Iowa's human trafficking law since 2010.
Lawmakers can seek out the same conversations so they can remove obstacles and provide appropriate nudges.
Lewis was failed on many fronts. No safety net caught her as a troubled runaway without food or a safe place to live. Teenagers shouldn't end up in situations where they have to decide between suffering repeated abuse and fighting back violently.
But when it does, at the very least, Iowa's criminal justice apparatus must consider the context of that abuse at every step before it incarcerates a child.