Posted on 01/26/2013 5:31:25 AM PST by EternalVigilance
DES MOINES — A state senator will push for public hearings on the death penalty in the Iowa Senate and House of Representatives as he files legislation to bring capital punishment back to Iowa.
Sen. Kent Sorenson, R-Milo, has championed the idea of reintroducing the death penalty in Iowa since the abduction and killing of Elizabeth Collins, 8, and Lyric Cook, 10, this summer in Evansdale.
Elizabeth’s parents joined Sorenson and parents of other missing and murdered children at a Capitol news conference, where the senator outlined five pieces of legislation he plans to introduce this session. Iowa abolished the death penalty in 1965.
There’s little chance of the death penalty returning this session, either, since Senate Judiciary Chairman Robb Hogg, D-Iowa City, said the bill won’t make it through his committee.
“Just saying that it’s not open for debate, that’s not how this country was set up,” said Drew Collins, Elizabeth’s father.
Struggling to find the words, Drew tensed as he spoke.
“As a parent of a murdered child, it makes me sick that it’s not even open to debate,” he said. “One person holding us hostage is unfair, and it victimizes us one more time.”
(Excerpt) Read more at qctimes.com ...
They ought to add ‘lobotomy’ as an alternative to the ‘death sentence’. Let the convicted SOB decide.
Even when Iowa had the penalty, it was rarely carried out.
Bury his ass in one grave and his balls in another?
I am so sorry for your tragic loss.
While I agree with his efforts, I think they are focused too narrowly. He could attract far more people if he included several categories, such as heinous crimes, but importantly, it could also be “one in the eye” to the Democrats.
That is, *link* mass killing homicide, like the Newtown shootings, to the need for the death penalty.
The idea is that *any* Democrat gun control legislation should be associated with bringing back the death penalty.
If they want to restrict rifles: death penalty.
If they want to restrict magazines: death penalty.
If they want to do this or that about guns: death penalty.
It should just be a matter of course in the Republican controlled Iowa house that any effort at gun control should immediately have a death penalty provision attached to it.
This would force the Democrats to either give up on any form of gun control in Iowa, or what is more likely to happen, enough of the razor thin majority the Democrats have in the Iowa senate will get a few defectors.
“Yes, you can own, but you cannot buy, a 30 round magazine in Iowa. But we are now sending murderers to death row.”
This sounds like a fair trade to me.
Time to change that, too.
That or implant a device to stimulate the area of the brain responsible for feeling guilt and shame, so as to make that person's inner life an unforgettable and inescapable personal hell, whether awake or asleep.
Thank you.
The death penalty is useless unless it isused, and used in a timely manner.
There are over 650 people sitting on California’s death row, being fed clothed and kept warm at night by the taxpayers. 99% of them will die a natural death.
Is that a deterrent to crime? No it isn’t .Is it Justice? It is not.
When the death penalty is given, the killer should be given a new trial 6 months later. New Judge , new Jury, New attorneys.
If he/she is convicted again the sentence should be carried out the next morning.
Close. It was a federal prisoner hung in 1963. McVeigh was the next person executed by the feds.
The last state of Iowa execution was 1962 by hanging.
Thanks for the correction...
Funny, I don’t remember the story in ‘63.
It was a hotly debated political issue when Harold Hughes was governor, which, alas, I remember.
when I read the headline I was curious to know whether criminals are to be castrated before or after they are executed.
Not unknown in history.
I was reading last week about the Gunpowder Plot of 1605. The perpetrators were half-hung, then castrated while they were still alive, shown their “parts,” and then drawn and quartered.
A couple of them, including the most famous plotter, Guy Fawkes, succeeded at hanging themselves fully by jumping off the platform so they wouldn’t have to endure steps two and three.
That is why offering a lobotomy, no appeals, as an alternative to the death penalty would actually fix the savages and fix the problem.
You lobotonise them you still have to feed and clothe them.
And you have to hire people to watch the Zombies you create.
There is no alternative to a death penalty quickly carried out.
If the death penalty is put off for over a year it loses all
deterrent effect.
Death penalty’s should be over and done with inside a year.
“There is no alternative to a death penalty quickly carried out.”
I agree. But you can lobotomize and put them to work in menial but paying jobs. I had a classmate whose mother was lobotomized. Peace came to the family and the mother carried out her household duties, cooking, cleaning, etc.
I think we ought to offer them the option of the lobotomy and ultimate return to the community as a contributing citizen....no more crimes to be committed.
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