To execute, or not to execute?

That’s the question Iowa lawmakers have been wrestling with for much of the legislative season, and that’s the question that apparently has members of the Iowa State community divided.

Iowans will get a chance to voice their opinions tonight at a public hearing at the Statehouse in Des Moines. Several university groups are planning to make the trip south.

Gov. Branstad, backed by Republican lawmakers, is leading the drive to bring back the death penalty, erased from the books 32 years ago.

Lawmakers are working out the glitches in a death-penalty bill in a committee before it can be presented to the full Senate for a vote.

University reactions

Aaron Deardorff, a freshman in animal science, said he’s against the death penalty “because it’s not a human’s right to kill another human.”

He’s not alone. Corey Sellner, a senior in electrical engineering, said, “Killing someone for someone else is really hypocritical.”

Dan Rowley, a sophomore in genetics, disagrees. “I kind of believe in an eye for an eye,” Rowley said.

There’s also those who take middle-of-the-road stances.

Melissa Eyberg, a senior in sociology and transportation logistics, said, “I don’t think keeping someone in jail is going to do any good if they are in there for life.”

“I favor it, but not in all cases,” said Barbara Mock, a graduate student in statistics. Mock said the penalty should be enforced only in extreme crimes. “Some people can’t be rehabilitated.”

Curt Daniels, a freshman in psychology, said he supports the death penalty for multiple murders, such as serial killings. He doesn’t support the punishment “if it just kind of happened.” But, if the crime is planned and can be proved, he said, the penalty should be enforced.

Campus opposition

Earlier this month, an anti-death penalty rally drew more than 50 members of the ISU community. Joanna Courteau, a professor of Spanish and Portuguese, organized the rally.

Courteau’s activism began in 1995 when the debate resurfaced. “The state is not in the business of killing people,” she said.

“When the state kills, it kills for me,” Courteau said. “I don’t want the state to kill for me.”

Despite claims that opposing the death penalty is a liberal issue, Courteau said it is also quite conservative. “It has to do with conserving life.”

Students are also opposing the death penalty through groups like Amnesty International and the Ames branch of Iowans Against the Death Penalty, Courteau said.

Michele Evermore, a senior in speech communication and a member of Amnesty International, said the group “is against it whole-scale.” Five members of Ames’ Amnesty International will testify at the hearing tonight. Iowans Against the Death Penalty officials are planning to rally before the hearing.