A bill that would allow the death penalty for those convicted of first degree murder in Iowa has been tabled in the Iowa House. Representative Clel Baudler, a Republican from Greenfield, is chairman of the House Public Safety Committee — and he says there isn’t enough support within the committee to pass the bill.
Baudler says he doesn’t blame anyone from holding firm views about the death penalty.
A bill pending in the Iowa SENATE would reinstate the death penalty, but for narrow instances like a kidnapping and then the murder of the victim. Baudler says if that bill clears the FULL Senate, House Republicans may reconsider the issue.
The Iowa legislature voted to ban capital punishment in 1965. In the mid-1990s, a bill to reinstate the death penalty narrowly passed the Iowa House, but was defeated in the Iowa Senate.
