Eight Republicans on an Iowa state Senate committee have narrowly approved a bill that would reinstate the death penalty for people convicted of kidnapping, raping and murdering a child in Iowa. Senator Jake Chapman, a Republican from Adel, says polls show Iowans support the death penalty in these cases.
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Senator Kevin Kinney, a Democrat from Oxford, is a former Johnson County Deputy. He investigated the 2005 kidnapping, rape and murder of 10-year-old Jetseta Gage of Cedar Rapids — and Kinney says he’s visited the cell of Roger Bentley, the girl’s killer who was sentenced to life in prison.
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The Senate’s Republican leader has not indicated whether the bill will be scheduled for debate in the senate. The bill has 20 Republican co-sponsors, but 26 “yes” votes are required to pass bills in the Senate.