death penalty news May 2, 2005
IOWA: No offenders match criteria in Senate death penalty plan A Senate Republican plan that would reinstate the death penalty would not have applied to any of the nearly 600 people serving life sentences in Iowa if it had been in place when the prisoners were sentenced, according to the state Department of Corrections. That's because none of the prisoners were convicted of the combination of crimes -- first-degree murder of a minor and kidnapping and sexual abuse of the same victim -- that would be eligible for the death penalty under the proposed plan. The effort to revive capital punishment is in response to the kidnapping, assault and murder of 10-year-old Jetseta Gage of Cedar Rapids. Only one prisoner convicted of a life sentence has been found guilty of first-degree murder of a child and one of the two other crimes: Lary Lane Morgan, who was found guilty in 1995 of kidnapping and murdering 9-year-old Anna Marie Emry of Grinnell. That case also led to a push in the Legislature to reinstate the death penalty. Senate Democrats say the lack of offenders convicted of the crimes reveals the GOP plan would have no impact, and is an exercise at headline grabbing. "The cost of setting up the death penalty procedures will run into the tens of millions of dollars," said Sen. Keith Kreiman, D-Bloomfield. "How much money are you taking away from the correctional system, how much money are you taking away from law enforcement?" Sen. Larry McKibben, R-Marshalltown, sponsor of the Senate proposal, said the plan is worth it if it deters just one murder. "My hope would be we establish the death penalty facility ... and it would never be used," he said. McKibben called for opening the death penalty debate just days after Jeseta Gage's death, saying his plan would end a loophole in the law the encourages kidnappers and rapists to "kill the witness." Senate Democratic Leader Mike Gronstal, of Council Bluffs, has said the issue doesn't have enough support to pass, and he won't allow it to be debated. There are 575 people in Iowa prisons serving life sentences, with cases dating back to the 1950s, according to corrections department. The list of those serving life sentences shows no match to the criteria of the Senate Republicans' plan. "There is no one in the Iowa prison system today serving on charges of murder in the first degree with sex abuse in the first degree with a kidnapping first degree," said Lettie Prell, assistant to the director of corrections. Iowa repealed its death penalty in 1965, two years after the last execution at the Iowa State Penitentiary in Fort Madison. Victor Feguer was executed on federal charges in 1963, convicted of killing a Dubuque doctor and taking him across state lines. (source: AP / Waterloo-Cedar Falls Courier)
