In another opinion issued yesterday, the Iowa Appellate Court upheld the ability of criminal defense attorneys to give their client advice on whether to go to trial or not. Defendant Scott Stufflebeam had pled guilty to second degree sexual abuse after efforts to suppress his confession to the crime were unsuccessful. His attorney then outlined his options to either go to trial or plead guilty, indicating her opinion that a trial would not likely result in an acquittal. Given that a jury would be entitled to hear him confess to committing the crime, this seems like a safe assumption. But Mr. Stufflebeam wanted to have his guilty plea overturned on the grounds that this advice was essentially coercing him to plead guilty against his will. The Court disagreed.