Iowa Court of Appeals rules that State should not have been allowed to amend a trial information during trial because the State essentially charged a wholly new and different offense, which was prejudicial. The State amended a charge of assault causing bodily injury, a serious misdemeanor, to  assault while using or displaying a dangerous weapon, an aggravated misdemeanor. The court held that a charge is different if it contained an element not found in the originally charged count. Because the new charge had elements not included in the original charge, and also carried a harsher punishment, the court should not have allowed the amendment. The Court of Appeals noted that even 1st degree and 2nd degree murder are wholly new and different offenses, even though they are contained in the same code section. Still, they contain different elements.

Read the case here