Bill introduced to reinstate death penalty in Iowa

DES MOINES, Iowa (Gray Television Iowa Capitol Bureau) - Iowa abolished the death penalty in 1965, but some lawmakers want to bring it back. Senate Study Bill 3085, which allows for capital punishment if someone kills a police officer, advanced out of its subcommittee.

Only 21 states still actively use the death penalty, according to the Death Penalty Information Center.

At a Senate subcommittee meeting Monday, not one member of the public spoke in favor of the bill.

Wendy Abrahamson with the Episcopal Diocese of Iowa says capital punishment is against her faith. “We follow a God who was executed by the state and so fundamentally we don’t believe that the state has any role in doing that. It also is not appropriate for the state to be acting in vengeance,” Abrahamson said.

Republican State Senator Scott Webster of Bettendorf says victims’ families deserve closure. “I know there’s a lot of conversation about this doesn’t deter anybody, but that closure that those parents need for the wife, for the husband, or the kids need should be considered also,” Webster said.

If the bill were signed into law, those sentenced to death would die by lethal injection. States that still have the death penalty have had difficulty in recent years getting the necessary drugs. The drugs are mostly made by European companies who have stopped selling to state corrections departments because they’re opposed to capital punishment.

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Conner Hendricks covers state government and politics for Gray Television-owned stations in Iowa. Email him at conner.hendricks@gray.tv; and follow him on Facebook at Conner Hendricks TV or on X/Twitter @ConnerReports.