Iowans Against the Death Penalty

10/01/2026

October 1, 2026

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Iowans Against the Death Penalty Statement on the Failed Ex*****on of Christa Pike in Tennessee

DES MOINES, Iowa — Iowans Against the Death Penalty (IADP) is deeply troubled by Tennessee's failed attempt to execute Christa Pike this week. Witnesses reported that Ms. Pike was still conscious, with an audible heartbeat, after two doses of pentobarbital. She was then taken to an outside medical facility for life-saving care. Governor Bill Lee has since paused Tennessee's remaining ex*****ons this year while the state's protocols are reviewed.

We grieve for Colleen Slemmer, whose life was taken in 1995, and for her family and friends, who have carried that loss for more than three decades. Taking Ms. Slemmer's life was a grave wrong. But the scene in a Tennessee ex*****on chamber this week does not bring justice to her family. Instead, it brings to the fore the very reasons to oppose state ex*****ons.

The first is that the death penalty does not deter crime. Decades of research have failed to show that ex*****ons make communities safer. States without the death penalty have consistently had murder rates at or below those of states that use it. Iowa abolished capital punishment in 1965, and Iowans have been no less safe for it.

Also, the death penalty endorses the very violence it claims to condemn. When a state deliberately kills a restrained, defenseless person, it teaches that killing is an acceptable answer to harm. A government cannot credibly say that taking a human life is wrong while setting aside a room, a staff, and a supply of drugs to do exactly that. Iowa should continue to model a better answer: holding people accountable while refusing to make killing the work of the state.

Finally, the death penalty is cruel and unusual. Both the Eighth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution and Article I, Section 17 of the Iowa Constitution forbid cruel and unusual punishment. A lethal injection that leaves someone conscious through two doses of a lethal drug fits any ordinary meaning of "cruel."

Those reasons are why IADP urges Iowa lawmakers to take note. Bills to bring back the death penalty in Iowa have been introduced in recent sessions. Although none has passed both chambers, what happened in Tennessee shows exactly what Iowa would be signing up for if those bills advanced.

IADP urges members of the Iowa General Assembly and Governor's office to reject any future attempt to reinstate capital punishment. We also call on Tennessee and every state that still carries out ex*****ons to end this practice for good.

Iowa chose a different path more than 60 years ago. We should be proud of that choice and never go back.

Contact: Marty Ryan, President, Iowans Against the Death Penalty — (515) 681-8076 [email protected]

04/01/2026

Iowans Against the Death Penalty
Newsletter 2026

April 2026
Vol. 7 Issue #2

Not this year

The second funnel deadline in the Iowa General Assembly occurred last week. A funnel deadline is a self-imposed date in which certain bills must be out of committee and on the Senate or House floor and ready for debate. There are no bills ready for debate that call for Iowa going back to death as a form of punishment. Technically, Senate file 320 is left over from last year. But as we have mentioned before, the bill is not eligible for debate since it failed to pass the first funnel deadline.

We have no death penalty debate for 2026. Thank you for contacting legislators and your ongoing financial support that keeps Iowans Against the Death Penalty a presence at the Iowa Capitol.

A new program

Jack and Andrea Holveck made a $50 contribution to the IADP FUND in Chuck Day’s name. Chuck Day was one of IADP’s founders; he served as the first secretary of the organization in 1964. The board of directors of IADP and IADP FUND embraced that contribution and have approved a policy that allows for the FUND to purchase a certificate of deposit when funds are available or earmarked for that purpose. The CD account will be named the Chuck Day Account in honor of Day who passed away in 2024 at the age of 94.

You can make a tax-deductible gift to the Iowans Against the Death Penalty Fund. EIN: 42-1407647 in any amount. Be sure to make any check available to “The IADP FUND.”

This is justice for whom?

The following is taken from the weekly e-newsletter from this week’s Death Penalty Information Center newsletter.

Texas prosecutors sent Rodney Reed to death row for the 1996 murder of Stacey Stites, whom they argued was strangled with her own leather belt. Yet for over a decade, state officials have fought Mr. Reed’s requests to test that belt for the killer’s DNA.

In 2023, the United States Supreme Court ruled that Mr. Reed’s lawsuit seeking the test was timely, and last year it struck down Texas’ attempts to block DNA testing in two other capital cases. However, on March 23, the Court refused to hear Mr. Reed’s most recent appeal after Texas courts again denied testing, this time on new grounds. Justices Sonia Sotomayor, Elena Kagan, and Ketanji Brown Jackson dissented from the denial of certiorari in a searing opinion that highlighted the racial bias in Mr. Reed’s case, the evidence casting serious doubt on his guilt, and the “inexplicable” refusal of state officials and lower courts to permit DNA testing that could confirm the identity of Ms. Stites’ killer.

Texas law allows capital prisoners to seek DNA testing of evidence during their postconviction appeals, but state prosecutors have consistently fought these efforts with procedural objections — even when, as in Mr. Reed’s case, the prisoner offers to pay for the testing. The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals and Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals have consistently ruled in favor of the state using narrow interpretations of the law. As a result, though Texas legislators sought to strengthen the legal pathway for prisoners to pursue innocence claims using forensic and technological advancements, state prosecutors have succeeded in blocking that path in virtually every capital case.

Read More »

To sign up for newsletters from the Death Penalty Information Center, go to: https://deathpenaltyinfo.org/

Your membership in IADP

Many individuals receiving this newsletter are current with their annual membership. Send an email to [email protected] to find out the status of your membership. Thank you!

Membership in IADP helps pay for the everyday, increasing costs of stationery, copying when it cannot be done in-house, our website, and office supplies in our continuing effort to successfully lobby Iowa legislators from reinstating the death penalty. IADP is operated entirely by
volunteers; we have no expense for salaries or other financial burdens that many other nonprofits experience.

Membership in Iowans Against the Death Penalty is $15 annually. 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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02/14/2026

Iowans Against the Death Penalty
Newsletter 2026

February 2026
Vol. 7 Issue #1

Where are we?

Will there be a death penalty bill this year? Short answer: We don’t believe so. Technically, Senate file 320 is left over from last year. However, as we mentioned in a newsletter last year, “It was a mild threat.” Next week is the final week of policy bills to be reported out of committees. In order for that to happen, a bill reinstating the death penalty in Iowa would need to be introduced, or SF 320 would have to be activated again. Neither scenario has occurred in the first months of this session of the Iowa Legislature.

In any case, we continue to monitor the introduction of bills, and amendments. It has occurred before where a bill came up in an amendment to an appropriations bill in the final days of the session. In 1991, a debate was held on the issue until the amendment was deemed “not germane” to the bill by the Speaker. Germane means “related to a matter at hand, especially to a subject under discussion. synonym: relevant.” A vote was taken in an attempt to overrule the decision of the Speaker, but it failed on a party-line vote. It proves that an issue can pop up at any time until the legislature has gone home for the year.

Help us remain vigilant. Dues to IADP are only $15 per year. Or, you can make a tax-deductible gift to the Iowans Against the Death Penalty Fund. EIN: 42-1407647.

When you contribute to Iowans Against the Death Penalty with an annual dues qualification of $15 or more, you are contributing to a 501(c)(4) because IADP uses these funds for lobbying expenses. Your dues to IADP are not deductible for tax purposes.

When you contribute to Iowans Against the Death Penalty Fund you are contributing to 501(c)(3), and your donation is tax-deductible. We use the funds in this account for education purposes, such as funding our website.

What is IADP doing?

This year, as in the past year, Marty Ryan and Bob Mulqueen are registered to lobby on behalf of Iowans Against the Death Penalty. There are no organized entities in favor of reinstating the death penalty in Iowa. Because of this fact, you might think it would be easy to defeat a bill if one should arise. Unfortunately, that is not the case. IADP and other entities opposing the death penalty are ready, willing, and able to fight the matter in the Capitol rotunda, but we also need you to lobby your respective legislators to emphasize the need to keep Iowa an abolitionist jurisdiction.

Find Your Legislator - Enter address, city, or zip code to find legislators serving that area.

Here is some recent useful information

The following is an Executive Summary from the Death Penalty Information Center for 2025:

• New DPI research found that when capital juries were asked to decide between a life sentence and a death sentence this year, more than half (56%) recommended a life sentence over a death sentence.
• New death sentences declined this year (23), reflecting the growing reluctance of juries to impose death sentences. Only 15 juries nationwide were able to unanimously agree to impose death sentences.
• This year’s Gallup poll found that support for the death penalty is at a 50-year low of 52%. Gallup also found that 44% of Americans now oppose the death penalty — the highest level of opposition recorded since May 1966.
• A majority of people under age 55 now oppose the death penalty — 50% of 35- to 54-year-olds and 52% of 18- to 34-year-olds.
• Ex*****ons rose from 25 in 2024 to 47 in 2025. The change is due almost entirely to a dramatic increase in ex*****ons in Florida, which alone accounted for 19 ex*****ons, or 40% of the year’s total.
• Ten military veterans were executed this year, seven of them in Florida. This was the highest number of veterans executed in almost 20 years.
• • Methods of ex*****on continued to raise concerns. Louisiana joined Alabama in executing prisoners using nitrogen gas, a method corrections officials characterized as “flaw-less,” even as media witnesses reported prisoners twitching, clenching their hands, and jerking against restraints. Alabama’s exection of Anthony Boyd using nitrogen gas lasted nearly 40 minutes, with Mr. Boyd showing many signs of distress.
• South Carolina performed the first firing squad ex*****on nationally in 15 years; an autopsy after Mikal Mahdi’s firing squad ex*****on indicated it was “botched” when the shooters apparently missed their target.
• The U.S. Supreme Court denied every request to stay an ex*****on in 2025.
• New legislative efforts tripled this year over last year, but only 17 bills were enacted. Florida alone enacted five new laws intended to expand use of the death penalty and challenge existing Supreme Court precedent. Seven other states passed laws increasing secrecy, modifying ex*****on protocols and procedures, expanding death penalty eligibility, and curtailing post-conviction appeals.

* * *
Also, “the U.S. homicide rate last year is likely to be the lowest in 125 years, according to an analysis of crime data.”
The murder rate is projected to hit its lowest point in a century
A new analysis of 2025 crime data from dozens of U.S. cities found across-the-board decreases in violent crime last year compared with 2019, including 13 percent fewer shootings, 29 percent fewer carjackings and 36 percent fewer robberies. The analysis also found that last year will likely register as the lowest national homicide rate since 1900.

No one knows for sure why the rate of violence is down, though some criminologists pointed to efforts over the past few years, including hot-spot policing, summer jobs for youth and cognitive behavioral therapy. Polls suggest that even the public has started to believe that there has been improvement, which is unusual in any era.

Senate File 320 is a bill that would reestablish capital punishment in Iowa whenever a person “intentionally kills a peace officer, who is on duty, under any circumstances, with knowledge that the person killed is a peace officer.” It was introduced this year by seven Republican senators. The bill was introduced at the request of a northwestern Iowa family whose son, a police officer in Algona, was shot while attempting to arrest a man who had an active warrant for his arrest from a neighboring county.

What you can do

The Ninety-first General Assembly at the Iowa Capital is into its second month of its second session. Anytime is a good time to talk to your legislators, and several host town meetings or participate in forums throughout the session. Or, it’s as simple as clicking here and calling them, sending them an email or letter, or better yet, arrange a meeting with them. Truly, they will want to hear what you have to say. Please share any information on your legislators’ positions with IADP.

Iowans Against the Death Penalty (IADP) prides itself on being fiscally responsible, relying on passionate and dedicated volunteers to continue its singular mission.

Membership in IADP helps pay for the everyday, increasing costs of stationery, copying when it cannot be done in-house, our website, and office supplies in our continuing effort to successfully lobby Iowa legislators from reinstating the death penalty. IADP is operated entirely by
volunteers; we have no expense for salaries or other financial burdens that many other nonprofits experience.

Your membership in IADP

Many individuals receiving this newsletter are current with their annual membership. Send an email to [email protected] to find out the status of your membership. Thank you!

Membership in Iowans Against the Death Penalty is $15 annually. 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.

Join Our Mailing List