Death penalty bill advances in Iowa Senate after emotional debate

A bill to reinstate the death penalty advanced in the Iowa Senate on Monday after an emotional debate in which supporters argued for justice after heinous crimes and opponents warned that executions have historically been racially biased and sometimes sent innocent people to their deaths.

Senate Study Bill 3134 was approved by a Senate subcommittee on a 3-2 vote with Republicans in favor and Democrats opposed. The measure now heads to the Senate Judiciary Committee, where a vote could occur this week.

The legislation would apply to the murder of a law enforcement officer or to cases in which a child is the victim of multiple offenses of kidnap, rape and murder.

Pottawattamie County Sheriff Jeff Danker testified in support of the death penalty. He recalled a tragic day last May when an inmate got loose and killed one deputy and seriously injured another deputy before fleeing and committing additional serious crimes.

"My concern is that now he will probably be incarcerated for the rest of his life. I hate to see him injure or kill anybody else in prison or jail. He has no remorse. That is the way he thinks. When an opportunity comes up, he will kill again.”

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Chief Deputy Iowa Attorney General Eric Tabor spoke against bill, providing a letter from Iowa Attorney General Tom Miller which said Iowa already has a de facto death sentence because a life sentence truly means life in prison without the possibility of parole. He noted that Iowa has one of the lowest murder rates in the nation and he said it is doubtful the death penalty can ever be administered fairly and impartially, particularly for African-Americans.

Leaders of faith groups spoke for and against the death penalty.

"It is wrong and it is immoral," said Connie Ryan, executive director of the Interfaith Alliance of Iowa.

But Pastor Dave Tyree of Church of Christ of Chariton spoke in favor of the bill.

"If you truly love life and believe it is a gift from God, there should be an appropriate punishment for someone who goes out and takes a human life," he said.

One focus of the bill was prompted by the death of 10-year-old Jetseta Gage, who was abducted from her grandmother's residence in March 2005 and found slain the next day in a mobile home southwest of Iowa City. The girl had been sexually abused, and two men remain in prison for crimes against her. The punishment for killing a law enforcement officer is linked to the Pottawattamie County case last year and the ambush-style killings of police officers in Des Moines and Urbandale in 2016.

Sen. Dan Dawson, R-Council Bluffs, who is an Iowa Division of Criminal Investigation agent, voted for the bill. "There has to be a higher penalty," he said. "I don't think our system is designed upon deterrence alone."

Sen. Tony Bisignano, D-Des Moines, voted no, saying he was the floor manager of death penalty legislation the last time it was debated after the tragic killing of two young persons in November 1992 at the Drake Diner in Des Moines. The death penalty was rejected by lawmakers in 1995 and has not been seriously debated since.

"We know where this falls. Poor people are executed. Rich people aren't," Bisignano said.

But even if the Iowa Senate passes the death penalty bill this session, it's uncertain whether it can win approval in the House. House Public Safety Committee Chairman Rep. Clel Baudler, R-Greenfield, recently said there is not enough support to advance expansive capital punishment legislation under House Study Bill 569.

Iowa abolished the death penalty in 1965. Except for the debate in the 1990s, lawmakers have since generally accepted the idea that Iowa will not execute inmates. That's meant that people convicted of first-degree murder and given life sentences in recent years have rarely been granted clemency by the state's governors.

Iowa's last execution was on March 15, 1963, when Victor Harry Feguer, a federal inmate, was hanged for kidnapping and killing Edward Bartels, a Dubuque physician. President John F. Kennedy denied an 11th-hour bid for clemency made by Gov. Harold Hughes.

Thirty-one states permit the death penalty and 1,465 executions have been carried out in the United States since 1976, according to the Death Penalty Information Center.