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Iowa GOP lawmaker to introduce death penalty bill

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December 8th, 2012 by Ric Hanson

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — A Republican state lawmaker says he plans to introduce a bill to reinstate the death penalty in Iowa, and he’s pointing to the deaths of two Iowa girls as his motivation. State Sen. Kent Sorenson, R-Milo, told The Des Moines Register that he intends to introduce a bill in the upcoming legislative session that begins in January. Sorenson says the discovery Wednesday of the bodies of 8-year-old Elizabeth Collins and her cousin, 10-year-old Lyric Cook, have brought the issue of the death penalty to the forefront.

But the chairman of the Iowa Senate’s Judiciary Committee, Sen. Gene Fraise, D-Fort Madison, says there is not enough support in the Iowa Legislature for reinstating the death penalty. Iowa repealed capital punishment in 1965.