Iowa hasn’t had a death penalty in over 50 years but public outrage over the deaths of two girls has spurred a new effort to re-institute capital punishment in Iowa.

The governor is fine with it, but it’s a state senator named Kent Sorenson that is spearheading the effort to get a capital punishment statute back on the books.  There’s a lot of emotion driving this issue up in Iowa after the bodies of cousins Elizabeth Collins ( 8 years old ) and Lyric Cook-Morrissey (10 years old), missing since July 2012, were recently found.  

Hunters discovered their remains this week in a wooded area near Evansdale, Iowa.  No arrests have been made, no persons of interest identified.  Currently, a reward for information is being offered in the amount of $150,000.00.  

Sorenson plans on introducing the bill in January 2013.  Whether or not he has the votes to get it out of the statehouse and to the governor’s desk for signature is not so clear: the chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee doesn’t think Sorenson can get those votes.

We’ll see.