State & Federal
Iowa
History of the Death Penalty
Iowa carried out 46 executions between 1834 and 1965. All of those executed were men; 43 were executed for murder and 3 were executed for rape.
Notable Cases
On July 15th, 1845, Mormon brothers William and Steven Hodges were hanged together for murder. Both brothers died proclaiming their innocence, blaming the verdicts on anti-Mormon prejudice.
The 1858 hanging of William Hinkle drew a crowd of 15,000 people. The Ottumwa Courier called it the largest gathering for any event west of the Mississippi.
Milestones in Abolition/Reinstatement
Iowa’s original death penalty statute remained active until 1872. Governor Cyrus Carpenter, spurred by an active anti-death penalty Quaker and Unitarian population, signed the first legislation to abolish the death penalty in Iowa. The abolition did not last long however, as a national economic depression and a wave of crime swept over Iowa in the years shortly after. Mobs began taking what they saw as justice into their own hands, lynching several accused or convicted defendants in the six years after abolition. The lynchings were blamed largely on the absence of a death penalty. In 1878, capital punishment was reinstated by the Iowa legislature in order to bring an end to lynchings and to attempt to stem the flood of crime that had hit the state.
1964 brought the most successful election year for Democrats in the history of the state of Iowa, paving the way for passage of another abolition bill in 1965. Governor Harold Hughes signed the bill that abolished Iowa’s death penalty a second time. Since then, numerous attempts have been made at reinstatement. The most serious of these reinstatement efforts came in the wake of the kidnapping, sexual assault, and murder of nine-year old Anna Marie Emry in 1994. Although Governor Terry Branstad made reinstatement of the death penalty central to his 1994 reelection campaign, none of the proposed measures were able to pass both houses of Iowa’s state legislature. (Gov. Branstad held office from 1983 – 1999, and was re-elected in 2011.)
Cornfield, Newton, Iowa. Public domain photo.
Resources
News & Developments
News
Jun 04, 2025
2025 Roundup of Death Penalty Related Legislation
More than one hundred bills have been introduced this year in 34 states and in Congress to expand and limit use of the death penalty, abolish and reinstate the death penalty, modify execution protocols and secret the information about them, and alter aspects of capital trials. Thus far, nine bills in five states have been enacted, with Florida enacting the most legislation. Of the bills that have been signed into law, three modify execution protocols; two expand…
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Mar 09, 2018
Attempts Both to Repeal and to Restore Death-Penalty Statutes Fail in Legislatures Across the Country
In Washington and Utah, bipartisan or Republican-led efforts at death-penalty repeal fell short, a month after death-penalty proponents abandoned efforts to reinstate capital punishment in New Mexico and Iowa. In Washington, a bipartisan push to replace the death penalty with life without possibility of release was introduced at the request of Democratic Attorney General Bob Ferguson with…
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News
Jun 14, 2011
IN MEMORIAM: David Baldus
On June 13, 2011, law professor and noted researcher David Baldus died in Iowa City, IA. Professor Baldus had been a professor at the University of Iowa since 1969 and taught criminal law, anti-discrimination law, and capital punishment and federal criminal law. He was nationally recognized for his research on the death penalty. Professor Baldus conducted many studies regarding the implementation of capital punishment in the United States.
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