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  1. #11
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    Iowa death penalty debate laid to rest

    By Rod Boshart
    The Courier

    DES MOINES — The 2018 legislative debate over reinstating the death penalty in Iowa proved to be short-lived.

    One day after a sometimes-emotionally charged subcommittee discussion on a bill designed to provide a limited deterrent in situations in which someone aged 18 or older kidnaps, rapes and murders a minor or kills a peace officer in the line of duty, a key senator pulled the plug on the topic.

    “It’s not going to be run,” Sen. Brad Zaun, R-Urbandale, chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, told reporters after Tuesday’s committee meeting. “I’m putting it to rest.

    “I don’t want to say any more than that. I’ve decided that it’s not going to go on the (Judiciary Committee) agenda either Wednesday or Thursday, so it will not be eligible to move on unless someone wants to do an amendment, which I can’t control. But in Judiciary, it will not be run.”

    A five-member subcommittee had voted 3-2 on Monday to advance Senate Study Bill 3134 to full committee. But opponents wondered then if there would be enough votes to pass it in committee or on the Senate floor — especially after a death-penalty bill in the Iowa House had failed to clear the subcommittee level.

    Friday marks the arrival of a self-imposed legislative deadline for non-money bills to clear a standing committee in the House or Senate to remain eligible for consideration this session.

    Zaun’s decision to withhold SSB 3134 from committee consideration means it will fall victim to the “funnel” system and will be tabled for the 2018 session.

    Sen. Jerry Behn, R-Boone, who has introduced a limited death penalty bill in each General Assembly since 1997, said he was disappointed but not surprised by the outcome.

    http://wcfcourier.com/news/local/gov...3cd5d4d81.html

  2. #12
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    Death penalty back on the Iowa legislative agenda

    The Gazette

    DES MOINES – Capital punishment would give the Iowa justice system another “tool” to use in prosecuting offenders who kidnap, rape and murder juveniles, according to proponents of reinstating the death penalty after a 54-year absence.

    “It’s one of the things I ran on in ’96 and I still think it’s an appropriate punishment for capital murder,” said Sen. Jerry Behn, R-Boone, who plans to introduce a death penalty bill for the 22nd consecutive year.

    He said his bill will be narrower in scope than House File 62, which was introduced Wednesday by Rep. Skyler Wheeler, R-Orange City, and would allow courts to apply the death penalty if the “aggravating circumstances established beyond a reasonable doubt outweigh any mitigating circumstances” in first-degree capital murder cases.

    In either case, Tom Chapman of the Iowa Catholic Conference said “the state should not commit violence to protect Iowans from violence.”

    Wheeler, Behn and Sen. Julian Garrett, R-Indianola, argue that the possibility of a death sentence would give law enforcement, prosecutors and courts more leverage in dealing with heinous crimes. Under current law, they said, the maximum penalty for kidnapping, rape and murder are all the same – life without parole.

    “So there’s a perverse incentive for someone who kidnaps and rapes to kill their victim so there is no witness,” Behn said.

    Sen. Kevin Kinney, D-Oxford, who is retired from a career in law enforcement, said he has no sympathy for people who kidnap, rape and murder, “but I don’t know if this is the right policy.”

    Life without parole “sets the bar pretty high” and may be a harsher punishment, he said.

    Last year, a death penalty measure was approved by a Senate Judiciary subcommittee, but Chairman Brad Zaun, R-Urbandale, did to bring it up for debate in the full committee despite being a supporter.

    “It’s a longshot … a heavy lift,” Wheeler said about the bill’s prospects, “but we have to keep the conversations going.”

    Garrett agreed that winning passage will not be easy, but he noted there are several new members in the House and Senate whose stance on the issue is unknown.

    “There are some people who, no matter what, will be against it,” Garrett said. “You can say that about a lot of bills. I’m not going to back off because of opposition. It’s a good bill and we should pass it.”

    https://www.thegazette.com/subject/n...-behn-20190123
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  3. #13
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    Iowa lawmakers push to bring the death penalty back to Iowa

    Iowa lawmakers have again introduced a bill that would bring back the death penalty for certain crimes.

    Under a bill that won support from an Iowa Senate committee Wednesday, the state would allow the death penalty for someone convicted of first-degree murder if the crime also involved kidnapping and sexual abuse against a minor. The committee passed it on a 3-2 vote.

    Twenty Republican senators are co-sponsoring the bill. That's less than half of the 50-member Senate, but more than the six senators who sponsored a similar measure last year.

    Bills that would have reinstated the death penalty have been introduced in previous legislative sessions, but none have passed. Critics say this year's legislation is unlikely to fare better.

    Iowa's last execution was in 1963 and the state outlawed the practice in 1965.

    Sen. Jason Schultz, R-Schleswig, said Iowa law currently creates a "perverse incentive" to kill a victim who has been kidnapped and raped because the penalty for all three crimes is life in prison without parole. The bill would remove that, said Schleswig, who chaired the Senate judiciary subcommittee Wednesday.

    "I do not find the death penalty to be un-Biblical, un-Christian," he said. "I believe that it doesn’t matter if it is a deterrent or not, there are some crimes for which you simply must be removed because they are so heinous and opposite the culture in which we live in."

    Opponents of the death penalty said people of color, people with low incomes and people with mental illnesses are disproportionately represented on death row.

    "The death penalty is unfair, it’s discriminatory, it’s fraught with error. The decision between life and death often turns on race, geography, the quality of counsel," said Mark Stringer, the executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Iowa.

    Karen Person with the League of Women Voters of Iowa said the death penalty is costly and there is no evidence it's a deterrent. She said Iowa's current system ensures someone who commits murder or another class A felony will die in prison.

    "The death penalty is irreversible and innocent people are known to have been executed. Iowa’s current penalty of life without the possibility of parole is a sufficiently harsh sentence," she said.

    Patti McKee of Des Moines said she has been a victim of violent crime and opposes the death penalty.

    "To me it is just state-sponsored vengeance and murder," she said.

    Religious leaders also opposed the bill. Tom Chapman, a lobbyist with the Iowa Catholic Conference, noted that the subcommittee was held as the World Congress Against the Death Penalty gathered in Brussels. He read a letter from Pope Francis opposing the death penalty and recognizing "the possibility of repentance."

    No lobbyists or members of the public spoke in favor of the bill.

    Sen. Jake Chapman, R-Adel, supports the bill. He said the kidnapping, rape and murder of a minor "is about as bad as it can come."

    "There are in my opinion some crimes so heinous, so despicable that the only proper justice is to have their life taken, this being one of them," he said.

    Sen. Tony Bisignano, D-Des Moines, opposes the bill and doesn't believe it will pass. It brings up painful memories and creates false hope to bring the issue up every year, he said.

    "There isn’t one caucus member of ours that would vote for this so I hope this is the last time in my lifetime here that we have to sit in a subcommittee and raise the false hope that the death penalty is coming back," he said.

    Gov. Kim Reynolds told reporters Wednesday that she'll watch the bill and see where it goes.

    "This is an opportunity again to talk about it but there’s a lot of things that go into considering that and I haven’t seen any shift from where we were last year," Reynolds said.

    The Des Moines Register last polled on the issue of capital punishment in 2006. At that time, 66 percent of Iowa adults favored reviving the death penalty for certain crimes, and 29 percent opposed it.

    https://eu.desmoinesregister.com/sto...on/3003318002/
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  4. #14
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    Death penalty proposed for specific child murder cases

    A bill to reinstate the death penalty in Iowa — just for those convicted of kidnapping, raping and murdering children — has cleared a subcommittee in the Iowa Senate.

    Sam Jones, pastor of the Faith Baptist Church in Hudson, spoke in favor of the bill during a hearing yesterday.

    “What does scripture say? Genesis 9:6, which is where we’d often founding of our civil government says this: ‘Whoever sheds man’s blood, by man his blood shall be shed,'” he said. “….We’re not talking, of course, about putting to death those that are innocent. We’re talking about those who are guilty.”

    Twenty other people spoke. All opposed the bill. Patti McKee of Des Moines told legislators she was the victim of a violent crime.

    “Had I died, it would have been to cover up another crime and I stand here opposed to the death penalty,” she said. “Taking a life for a life doesn’t get us anywhere except a more violent society.”

    Loxie Hopkins of Davenport said a state-sanctioned death penalty goes against her Catholic faith.

    “I understand that you’re talking about the death penalty for just one instance,” she said, “but we have to all know that it won’t stop here.”

    Several speakers, like Indira Scheumaker (SHOO-may-ker) of Des Moines, said minorities are far more likely than white defendants to be sentenced to death.

    “Sentencing is harsher for black people,” she said. “…That means there is going to be a disparity of who’s going to be sentenced to the death penalty if we have this.”

    Jadyn Lovelady, a Creighton University student, made a similar argument.

    “Listen to the reality of what is happening in our country today,” she said. “…It is unacceptable to put this bill forward.”

    Others said the cost of capital punishment is far greater than the current sentence for those convicted of kidnapping, raping and killing a minor, which is life in prison with no chance for parole. Republican Senator Julian Garrett of Indianola, the bill’s chief sponsor, responded at the end of the hour-long hearing.

    “We had a lot of talk about the killer, the person that did the killing or the accused, but I don’t remember very much discussion about the victims,” Garrett said. “It seems to me they ought to get at least as much, probably more attention from us, than the people that did the killing.”

    Garrett and another Republican senator announced their support for the bill at the conclusion of the hearing, making the proposal eligible for consideration in a senate committee.

    (source: radioiowa.com)
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  5. #15
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    Republicans to renew death penalty debate at Statehouse

    BY LUKE CLAUSEN
    The Iowa Capital Dispatch

    Iowa lawmakers could begin as early as next week to begin work on Republicans’ latest effort to reinstate the death penalty in Iowa.

    State Sen. Brad Zaun has reintroduced a bill into the Senate Judiciary Committee that could bring back the death penalty in Iowa “for murder in the first degree” when it “involve[es] kidnapping and sexual abuse offenses against” a minor.

    “There’s been several instances in the state of Iowa where the person kills the child after they have sexually abused them,” Zaun said. “Many times what’s happened is that once they have finished all their sexual abuse, because they know that the penalty is not higher, there’s almost incentive to kill off your potential witness. And I find this behavior despicable. That is the reason why I have refiled this bill.”

    Currently, the penalty for the rape and kidnapping of a minor and the rape, kidnapping and murder of a minor is the same. Both crimes bring a life sentence in prison upon conviction.

    “That’s always bothered me, that there’s almost a perverse incentive… to kill the victim so there won’t be a witness,” State Sen. Julian Garrett said.

    Garrett, R-Indianola, chairs the subcommittee assigned to consider Zaun’s bill, Senate File 14. He has not yet scheduled a subcommittee meeting on the bill but said it could be as soon as next week.

    “Obviously, if you don’t, the victim is then free… to testify against the perpetrator and the perpetrator knows that,” Garrett said. “So it seems to me we need something to try to deter a kidnapper or rapist from killing their victim.”

    A similar bill was introduced in 2019 and 2021, but did not reach the floor for a vote. Capital punishment has not been used in Iowa since it was abolished in the state in 1965 by Gov. Harold Hughes. Legislation to reinstate capital punishment has not been debated on the floor of either chamber since 1995.

    Marty Ryan, president of Iowans Against the Death Penalty, disagrees that this bill would deter perpetrators more than the current statutes. He said perpetrators don’t think they’re going to get caught in the first place, so the deterrence of the death penalty will be null.

    “A person who rapes, murders and kidnaps a child is facing three life sentences without the possibility of parole. Three,” Ryan said. “That’s death right there. You’re going to die in prison.”

    Zaun, R-Urbandale, said with the larger Republican majorities in the House and Senate, his bill has a better chance of passing.

    “We do have a new Judiciary Committee and a new Legislature and there’s a lot of new members,” Zaun said. “I do think it’s got a better chance in the Legislature.”

    Former Gov. Terry Branstad made bringing back capital punishment a major issue in his 1994 reelection campaign, but was unsuccessful in pushing the Senate to pass the bill after the House approved it in 1995.

    “Once they get in the door with a death penalty, they’ll always want to try to expand it. Who’s next? It’s what I call the Animal Farm bills. First, we get this bill in, and then we add the police, then we add correctional officers, then we add health care workers and that’s how it goes,” Ryan said. “This is while other states are getting rid of their death penalty. Why would we want to get it started?”

    Both Zaun and Garrett emphasized the narrowness of the bill and and said they believe for this particular combination of crimes, the death penalty should be on the table.

    “I’m not a death penalty advocate,” Zaun said. “But in this particular circumstance, I think it’s a change that’s needed."

    https://iowacapitaldispatch.com/2023...at-statehouse/
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  6. #16
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    Gov. Kim Reynolds will be happy with this, if legislation is passed in the State House.
    "How do you get drunk on death row?" - Werner Herzog

    "When we get fruit, we get the juice and water. I ferment for a week! It tastes like chalk, it's nasty" - Blaine Keith Milam #999558 Texas Death Row

  7. #17
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    Reynolds said in her 2018 campaign she was against reinstating it.

  8. #18
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    She said that she supported executions in "limited circumstances".

    https://www.radioiowa.com/2017/12/22...circumstances/

    Hard to be more limited than that bill, applying to murders involving kidnapping and sexual abuse offenses against a minor.

    That's precisely the crimes for which the 2019 Bessette-Sinclair study found that public support for the death penalty is between 75 and 80 percent.

    http://www.cncpunishment.com/forums/...998#post139998
    Last edited by Steven AB; 01-15-2023 at 09:32 PM.
    "If ever there were a case for a referendum, this is one on which the people should be allowed to express their own views and not irresponsible votes in the House of Commons." — Winston Churchill, on the death penalty

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  9. #19
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    Senate panel advances bill to reinstate the death penalty for some crimes

    BY ROBIN OPSAHL
    The Iowa Capital-Dispatch

    Iowa Republican lawmakers advanced a bill Wednesday reinstating the death penalty in Iowa for cases in which a person is convicted of killing a minor after kidnapping and sexually abusing them.

    Senate File 14 would only apply the death penalty in cases where a person is convicted of multiple offenses of murder in the first degree, as well as kidnapping and sexual abuse in the first, second or third degree against the same minor. Under current law, the maximum penalty would be life in prison without possibility of parole.

    Sen. Jason Schultz, R-Schleswig, said he would be open to expanding the death penalty as a sentencing option in the future.

    “I believe this is justified religiously, morally, logically,” Schultz said. “There’s no reason not to support this in my mind. Saying that, I believe it could go further, but that’s not what we have before us.”

    A Senate Judiciary subcommittee heard from multiple religious and legal advocates opposed to the death penalty for any reason.

    Religious leaders and lobbyists with the Iowa Catholic Conference, Episcopal Diocese of Iowa, Interfaith Alliance of Iowa and United Church of Christ of Iowa, argued the death penalty is immoral in all circumstances. Tom Chapman, executive director of the Iowa Catholic Conference, said it is possible to deter and prevent horrific crimes like the ones the bill targets without ending a person’s life.

    “From our religious perspective, every person — every person — is made in the image and likeness of God,” Chapman said. “That’s their human dignity. And even those people who have committed great harm to the community and other people, they retain that human capacity to reform, to love and to be loved. And so we agree it’s the duty of the state to punish offenders and protect the common good, but we oppose reinstating the death penalty.”

    There are reasons beyond religion that the death penalty should be opposed, Pete McRoberts with the American Civil Liberties Union of Iowa said. Lawyers and judges get things wrong, he said, and there are many examples of people being found innocent while waiting on death row. The Death Penalty Information Center found 190 people sentenced to death had been exonerated on all charges since 1973.

    McRoberts argued Iowa’s judicial system has not proven it can be trusted to fairly sentence using capital punishment. He pointed to the disproportionate rates of incarceration for Black Iowans, who make up 4% of the state’s population but constitute 20% of people in jail and 24% of people in prison, according to a study by the Vera Institute, a research and policy nonprofit.

    He also brought up the issues the Legislature is trying to address following an incident in 2021, when a district judge’s comments interfered with the judicial appointment process. Those problems show Iowa’s judiciary has structural flaws which could lead to unfair or incorrect death sentences if the bill becomes law, he said.

    “Judges have the power to change lives,” McRoberts said. “And if this is enacted, judges and juries and the lawyers in the room will have the power to end lives. And I don’t think those are the people who should have all that power.”

    Sen. Jeff Edler, R-State Center, who chaired the committee, acknowledged it’s impossible for the courts to get every case right.

    “Well, we’re human,” Edler said. “We’re not claiming 100% perfection. But we’ve got a lot better mechanisms with using science now, with DNA and so on, where our chances are much better than they used to be of making sure we got the right person.”

    Iowa has not had the death penalty since 1965, but legislation reestablishing it has come up many times over the past several decades. Former Republican Gov. Terry Branstad campaigned on bringing back the death penalty in his 1994 reelection race. The House approved it in 1995 but the bill did not clear the Senate. Death penalty proposals for specific crimes have not made it to floor debate in the years since.

    Sen. Tony Bisignano, D-Des Moines, asked if there was enough support among the Republican caucus to successfully pass a death penalty bill this year, or if the governor has told Republicans she would sign it. Edler said the Legislature does not need to get the governor’s approval to introduce or discuss legislation.

    If the bill is approved by both chambers of the Legislature, the governor’s signature would be required to enact it.

    All but one of the speakers at Wednesday’s meeting opposed the bill. But Edler said that does not mean the death penalty is not popular with Iowans. He cited a 2021 national survey from the Rose Institute on State and Local Government which found 74% of respondents supported the death penalty when a person is charged with raping and murdering a child.

    Edler said the goal of the legislation was deterrence, specifically in preventing murders where a perpetrator kidnapped and raped a victim and planned to kill the minor to eliminate them as a witness.

    “I think it will save innocent lives,” he said. “That’s the crux of the matter. And if we can save some innocent lives, then it’s appropriate for us to pass.”

    https://iowacapitaldispatch.com/2023...r-some-crimes/
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  10. #20
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    Bill reinstating death penalty moves out of Senate Judiciary Committee

    BY ROBIN OPSAHL
    The Iowa Capital-Dispatch

    Lawmakers who support reinstating the death penalty argued with opponents Tuesday over whether capital punishment is more likely to save or cost innocent lives.

    Senate File 14 would reinstate capital punishment in Iowa in cases where a minor is kidnapped, raped and murdered. It moved out of the Senate Judiciary Committee Tuesday on a 10-8 vote.

    Two Republicans, Sens. Jeff Taylor and Lynn Evans, voted against the legislation alongside the six Democrats.

    Sen. Julian Garrett, R-Indianola, said the legislation was tailored to deter criminals who kidnap and rape a child from killing the victim in order to prevent them from testifying in court. Under current law, a person convicted for the kidnap and rape of a child will get a life in prison, the same as someone who committed those crimes and also killed that child, he said. Capital punishment could prevent deaths in these cases, he said.

    “The issue is saving innocent lives,” Garrett said. “We don’t know which ones, we don’t know exactly how many, but these studies tell us reinstating the death penalty will save some innocent lives. And that’s why to me, the miniscule chance that we might make a mistake is more than offset by the innocent young women whose lives we will save.”

    The death penalty was abolished in Iowa in 1965. In the past few decades, Republicans regularly introduced legislation to reinstate the death penalty for specific crimes. The Iowa House approved a death penalty bill in 1995 but it was defeated in the Senate.

    Sen. Herman Quirmbach, D-Ames, said there are numerous studies showing capital punishment does not deter murders, many of which are “crimes of passion” and not premeditated decisions. The Death Penalty Information Center (DPIC), a D.C. nonprofit studying capital punishment, has published multiple studies showing states with the death penalty do not have lower murder rates than those that do not.

    “If the death penalty does not deter, then the potential saving of lives down the line that Senator Garrett claims, in fact does not exist,” Quirmbach said. “In fact, those lives down the line are going to be saved if we convict the guilty person and give them life without parole.”

    But there is ample evidence, Quirmbach said, that death penalty verdicts are often wrong. The DPIC found 190 people sentenced to death have been exonerated on all charges since 1973.

    Garrett acknowledged in the bill’s subcommittee meeting last week that human error exists, and could lead to wrongful convictions in some cases. Quirmbach and Sen. Nate Boulton, D-Des Moines, asked Garrett what error rate was acceptable for the death penalty convictions.

    Garrett cited studies from the Heritage Foundation, a conservative organization, and from Professor Michael Summers at Pepperdine University showing death penalties deter murders.

    He also said while human error will still exist, DNA evidence and other crime scene scientific advancements have drastically reduced the chances for wrongful conviction.

    “What do you think would be an acceptable number of innocent young women being murdered down the road if we don’t instate the death penalty?” Garrett said. “How many young women are we willing to sacrifice to avoid to having to have the death penalty?”

    https://iowacapitaldispatch.com/2023...ary-committee/
    Thank you for the adventure - Axol

    Tried so hard and got so far, but in the end it doesn’t even matter - Linkin Park

    Hear me, my chiefs! I am tired. My heart is sick and sad. From where the sun now stands, I will fight no more forever. - Hin-mah-too-yah-lat-kekt

    I’m going to the ghost McDonalds - Garcello

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