Lawmakers will debate returning death penalty to Iowa

[TexasTowelie]

DES MOINES — Bringing the death penalty back to Iowa likely will be debated but probably not approved during the 2018 legislative session, key lawmakers say.

Sen. Brad Zaun, R-Urbandale, chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, said he plans to assign a subcommittee to take up Senate File 335 with an eye on possibly expanding the provisions, but he is uncertain how far the issue may go in a session already loaded with what he said were more pressing priorities.

S.F. 335, introduced by a group of Senate Republicans last session, would restore capital punishment in Iowa for the first time since 1965 by establishing a two-pronged process.

A jury or judge could convict a perpetrator of committing multiple class A offenses, and separately make a decision whether to execute the offender by lethal injection. Any death penalty conviction automatically would be appealed to the Iowa Supreme Court, and juvenile offenders would be exempted.

Read more: http://qctimes.com/muscatine/news/lawmakers-will-debate-returning-death-penalty-to-iowa/article_77863f68-df52-5bfd-9497-d7f921102cd6.html

[exboyfil]

1. We had 71 murders in Iowa in 2016

you would think the legislature could find more important things to fill their time. In Iowa if you go to prison for murder, you stay in prison until you are dead or need a walker to get around.

[minstrel76]

2. Conservatives have tried many times in the last 50 years to reinstate the death penalty in Iowa

They have failed. And they will continue to do so, as long as opponents of the death penalty remain "well organized".

http://www.iowansagainstthedeathpenalty.org/iowa.html