Des Moines, Iowa — Six Republicans in the Iowa Senate have introduced a bill that would reinstate a limited form of capital punishment in Iowa. Under the proposed bill, people convicted of kidnapping, rape AND murder would be eligible for the death penalty, and at least one northwest Iowa legislator says he supports the proposed legislation.
Senator Randy Feenstra of Hull tells KIWA, in an email, that he is “in support of the death penalty if all three items occur, kidnapping, rape and then death.”
Senator Julian Garrett of Indianola is one of the bill’s co-sponsors.
Feenstra agrees, saying “the hope would be that the person doing such a horrible thing would think twice before killing someone if they knew they would also receive death if they were caught.”
Similar legislation passed the Iowa House in 1995 with 54 “yes” votes, but failed the Iowa Senate by an overwhelming 39-11 vote. Senator Pam Jochum, a Democrat from Dubuque, was a member of the House in 1995. She voted against the death penalty back then and her position has not changed. Jochum suggests the outcome for capitol punishment might change in 2017, though.
Death by hanging was the form of capital punishment in Iowa until 1965, when the death penalty was repealed in Iowa. In 1994, Governor Terry Branstad made reinstating the death penalty a cornerstone of his reelection campaign after the kidnapping, rape and murder of a nine-year-old girl from Grinnell. The man found guilty of kidnapping, raping and murdering Anna Marie Emery in 1994 was sentenced to life in prison.
