Murder Investigation Leads to Death Penalty Proposal

By Carrie Murphy

CREATED Jan. 25, 2013

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Des Moines, IA - One of only 17 states without a death penalty, Iowa lawmakers will be asked to change state law and reinstate capital punishment. Iowa abolished the death penalty in 1965.

State Senator Kent Sorenson plans to introduce the bill; it would apply in first-degree murder cases when the victim is a child or if the victim was kidnapped or sexually abused.

Sorenson's bill follows the kidnapping and murder of two Iowa girls last summer.  Lyric Cook and Elizabeth Collins went missing from Evansdale, Iowa.  Hunters found their bodies in December. 

Sorenson will also introduce bills to require electronic monitoring of sex offenders, eliminate earned time in prison for some sex offenders, require chemical castration of people who commit serious sex crimes and notify hunters when a child is reported missing.

Elizabeth and Lyric were cousins. They left their grandmother's house on their bikes in July.  Police found the bikes, a phone and purse near a lake on the outskirts of town.

Elizabeth's parents attended Sorenson's announcement today.