Update on Senate File 14
A subcommittee meeting on Iowa Senate File 14 will be held this week on Wednesday, February 15, at 1:00 pm in Room 315 of the Iowa Capitol.
Senate File 14, if enacted the bill would create a “capital murder offense by establishing the penalty of death for murder in the first-degree offenses involving kidnapping and sexual abuse offenses against the same victim who is a minor.”
The Senate Subcommittee consists of Sen. Julian Garrett (R-Indianola); Sen. Tony Bisignano (D-Des Moines); and Sen. Jason Schultz (R-Schleswig). Sen. Garrett is the subcommittee chair and floor manager.
How to help
You don’t have to attend the subcommittee meeting in person. You can join via Zoom.
Room 315 is inviting you to a scheduled Zoom meeting.
Join Zoom Meeting
https://us06web.zoom.us/j/81634608917?pwd=dll1SUR4eFJlU3dLRHdrY3lIQlkxdz09
Meeting ID: 816 3460 8917
Passcode: 269320
Find your local number: https://us06web.zoom.us/u/kegCIulCIV
In any case, we ask that you send an email to the subcommittee members and your own senator, if different from the subcommittee, and present your views in opposition in no more than 100 words. Anything longer may be disregarded. When you do submit your email, please cc us at: info@iowansagainstthedeathpenalty.org Please be respectable and professional or you may damage our cause!
Also, contact your senator and representative and ask each if they oppose the death penalty. Then, we ask you share that information with us. info@iowansagainstthedeathpenalty.com or mrtyryn@gmail.com
Contact information for your senator and representative should be located on their legislative website page. For senators, locate the name of you senator and click on the senator’s name. Information on the senator’s committees, legislation introduced, email address, physical address, cell phone and Senate phone will come up on the senator’s page. For representatives, follow the same procedure as previously outlined for senators. Representatives.
Helpful Hints
You may ask your legislator(s) if he/she would vote to oppose any death penalty bill. If your legislator responds with “I don’t think there will be a death penalty bill debate this year,” or some similar reply, let them know that that is not the question you asked. Ask again: “Would you oppose any bill in the Iowa Legislature that reinstated the death penalty?”
You are the constituent; you are the legislator’s boss; the person to whom the legislator is elected to represent. You have every right to expect a definitive answer. Be respectful nice, but firm.
More information
Iowans Against the Death Penalty is a single-issue organization established in 1962. We were instrumental in the repeal of the state’s death penalty law in 1965, and IADP has worked vigilantly to resist efforts to reinstate it over the years.
Funds are necessary to run any organization. While IADP operates entirely with volunteers, it costs money to maintain a website, to print and mail materials, and to organize events.
IADP is dedicated to expanding its presence in Iowa. If you are affiliated with a community college, university, youth group, high school, church, or any other group that would be interested in hosting a meaningful discussion, we would love to hear from you. Please let us know and we will respond accordingly as soon as possible.
Your membership in IADP
Membership in Iowans Against the Death Penalty is $15 annually. If you cannot recall the last time you paid yearly dues, your membership has most likely lapsed. We encourage you to join us by submitting a check for $15, along with your name, address, zip code, and email address to:
IADP
PO Box 782
Des Moines, IA 50303
Or, by joining online at: http://www.iowansagainstthedeathpenalty.org/join-our-mailing-list
IADP is a section 501(c)(4) organization which uses some of its funds for lobbying. Membership contributions to IADP are NOT tax deductible.
Iowans Against the Death Penalty FUND is an IADP sister organization which can accept tax deductible gifts and grants since it is a section 501(c)(3) organization with the Internal Revenue Service. Making a tax-deductible gift to the IADP FUND does not mean you are an IADP member.
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FYI
This is a poem written by Carl Sandburg in the 1920s.
Killers
C. Sandburg
I AM put high over all others in the city today.
I am the killer who kills for those who wish a killing today.
Here is a strong young man who killed.
There was a driving wind of city dust and horse dung blowing and he stood at an intersection of five sewers and there pumped the bullets of an automatic pistol into another man, a fellow citizen.
Therefore, the prosecuting attorneys, fellow citizens, and a jury of his peers, also fellow citizens, listened to the testimony of other fellow citizens, policemen, doctors, and after a verdict of guilty, the judge, a fellow citizen, said: I sentence you to be hanged by the neck till you are dead.
So there is a killer to be killed and I am the killer of the killer for today.
I don’t know why it beats in my head in the lines I read once in an old school reader: I’m to be queen of the May, mother, I’m to be queen of the May.
Anyhow it comes back in language just like that today.
I am the high honorable killer today.
There are five million people in the state, five million killers for whom I kill.
I am the killer who kills today for five million killers who wish a killing.