diff --git a/webapp/src/edu/cornell/mannlib/vitro/webapp/controller/edit/ClassgroupRetryController.java b/webapp/src/edu/cornell/mannlib/vitro/webapp/controller/edit/ClassgroupRetryController.java
index c11f66c96..236c2c38f 100644
--- a/webapp/src/edu/cornell/mannlib/vitro/webapp/controller/edit/ClassgroupRetryController.java
+++ b/webapp/src/edu/cornell/mannlib/vitro/webapp/controller/edit/ClassgroupRetryController.java
@@ -65,13 +65,10 @@ public class ClassgroupRetryController extends BaseEditController {
                 } catch (NullPointerException e) {
                     log.error("Need to implement 'record not found' error message.");
                 }
-                if (vclassGroupForEditing == null) {
-                    try {
-                        String uriToFind = new String(request.getParameter("uri").getBytes("ISO-8859-1"),"UTF-8");
-                        vclassGroupForEditing = (VClassGroup)cgDao.getGroupByURI(uriToFind);
-                    } catch (java.io.UnsupportedEncodingException uee) {
-                        // forget it
-                    }
+                if (vclassGroupForEditing == null) {                    
+                    //UTF-8 expected due to URIEncoding on Connector in server.xml
+                    String uriToFind = new String(request.getParameter("uri"));
+                    vclassGroupForEditing = (VClassGroup)cgDao.getGroupByURI(uriToFind);
                 }
             } else {
                 vclassGroupForEditing = new VClassGroup();
diff --git a/webapp/src/edu/cornell/mannlib/vitro/webapp/controller/edit/PropertyGroupRetryController.java b/webapp/src/edu/cornell/mannlib/vitro/webapp/controller/edit/PropertyGroupRetryController.java
index 362457344..0eeb5dc28 100644
--- a/webapp/src/edu/cornell/mannlib/vitro/webapp/controller/edit/PropertyGroupRetryController.java
+++ b/webapp/src/edu/cornell/mannlib/vitro/webapp/controller/edit/PropertyGroupRetryController.java
@@ -65,12 +65,9 @@ public class PropertyGroupRetryController extends BaseEditController {
                     log.error("Need to implement 'record not found' error message.");
                 }
                 if (propertyGroupForEditing == null) {
-                    try {
-                        String uriToFind = new String(request.getParameter("uri").getBytes("ISO-8859-1"),"UTF-8");
-                        propertyGroupForEditing = (PropertyGroup)pgDao.getGroupByURI(uriToFind);
-                    } catch (java.io.UnsupportedEncodingException uee) {
-                        // forget it
-                    }
+                    // UTF-8 expected due to URIEncoding on Connector element in server.xml
+                    String uriToFind = new String(request.getParameter("uri"));
+                    propertyGroupForEditing = (PropertyGroup)pgDao.getGroupByURI(uriToFind);
                 }
             } else {
                 propertyGroupForEditing = new PropertyGroup();
diff --git a/webapp/src/edu/cornell/mannlib/vitro/webapp/freemarker/config/FreemarkerConfiguration.java b/webapp/src/edu/cornell/mannlib/vitro/webapp/freemarker/config/FreemarkerConfiguration.java
index fe7555d35..17ad1fd0b 100644
--- a/webapp/src/edu/cornell/mannlib/vitro/webapp/freemarker/config/FreemarkerConfiguration.java
+++ b/webapp/src/edu/cornell/mannlib/vitro/webapp/freemarker/config/FreemarkerConfiguration.java
@@ -242,7 +242,7 @@ public abstract class FreemarkerConfiguration {
 			 * URL?
 			 */
 			try {
-				c.setSetting("url_escaping_charset", "ISO-8859-1");
+				c.setSetting("url_escaping_charset", "UTF-8");
 			} catch (TemplateException e) {
 				log.error("Error setting value for url_escaping_charset.");
 			}