DES MOINES, Iowa – The death penalty could return to Iowa as efforts move forward in the state capital.
Last legislative session, a bill that would bring back the death penalty passed a subcommittee before failing in the Iowa House.
On Wednesday, a similar bill passed a Senate subcommittee.
Nobody has been executed in Iowa since 1963 and the practice was banned in 1965.
The bill has 20 Republican co-sponsors, which is six more than it had last year.
The reason for its failure in the House last legislative session was the change of heart from Rep. Steve Holt, who headed the subcommittee that initially passed it.
Gov. Terry Branstad made reinstatement of the death penalty central to his 1994 re-election campaign, but none of the proposed measures were able to pass both houses of Iowa’s state legislature.
According to WHO Channel 13, several polls state most Iowans support bringing the death penalty back.