Iowa remains one of the 17 states without the death penalty; however, this quality of Iowa could change with a new bill that has been introduced by Sen. Kent Sorenson.

The death penalty was abolished close to 47 years ago in 1965.  

The last time a conversation about the death penalty being reinstated occurred in 1995 when it was rejected by a vote of 39-11.

The focus of the death penalty is mainly the protection of children. The proposed bill, Senate File 76, states that if someone is found guilty of “murder in the first degree, and the commission of either kidnapping in the first degree or sexual abuse in the first degree, or both, against the same minor who was murdered,” a penalty of death can be sentenced.

The kidnap, murder and possible sexual assault of Elizabeth Collins and Lyric Cook-Morrissey, who were taken from Evansdale and found in December 2012 in Bremer County Park, is what fueled Sorenson to take action.

“The financial aspect of the death penalty, being that it costs more than life in prison by a large difference, which mainly is because of legal fees, may not be the best policy,” said Peter Orazem, professor of economics.

According to the Death Penalty Information Center, “in California, the costs of the death penalty since 1978 is over $4 billion” and “if California would switch the remaining death row prisoners to life without parole they would save an average of $170 million per year ending up with $5 billion in 20 years.”

States are now becoming aware of the costs of the death penalty, which goes beyond the economic aspect and into the effectiveness aspect.

There are 33 states that have the death penalty, and out of those 33 states, only nine used the death penalty in 2012, according to the Death Penalty Information Center.

The death penalty will cause immense changes to Iowa’s penal code.

“This bill will have a huge impact on our judicial system. It would put us back into the times of Hammurabi, whose law was an eye for an eye, and I would not be in favor of this bill,”  said Jefferson Fink, president of the Political Science Club.

“My concern: is it worth killing a convicted murderer, in a relativity short amount of time, or it is more of a punishment for the convict to have to deal with the constant guilt of having killed someone.”