An Iowa lawmaker plans to introduce a bill to reinstate the death penalty in the Hawkeye State and he's pointing to the deaths of two girls as his motivation.
Republican State Sen. Kent Sorenson of Milo says he intends to introduce a bill in the upcoming legislative session that begins in January.
Sorenson says the discovery Wednesday of the bodies of 8-year-old Elizabeth Collins and her cousin, 10-year-old Lyric Cook-Morrissey, have raised the issue of the death penalty to the forefront.
The chairman of the Iowa Senate's Judiciary Committee, Sen. Gene Fraise of Fort Madison, a Democrat, says there is not enough support in the Iowa Legislature to support resurrection of the death penalty.
Iowa repealed capital punishment in 1965.
