This bill establishes a capital murder offense in Iowa, specifically targeting the first-degree murder of a peace officer while on duty, and imposes the death penalty for such crimes. It amends existing laws to include provisions for the prosecution and defense in capital murder cases, requiring the attorney general to intervene when necessary and mandating the appointment of qualified counsel for indigent defendants facing the death penalty. The legislation introduces new sections that define the intentional killing of a peace officer as a capital offense, outline procedures for assessing the sanity of condemned inmates, and establish an automatic review process by the Iowa Supreme Court for death sentences.

Furthermore, the bill emphasizes the importance of ensuring that the death penalty is not imposed based on arbitrary factors such as race or religion, and it outlines requirements for jury instructions during penalty proceedings. It specifies that a death sentence can only be imposed if the jury or judge finds the defendant was a major participant in the crime and exhibited reckless indifference to human life. The bill also includes provisions for data collection on capital murder cases to assess fairness and proportionality, protects state employees who refuse to participate in executions, and will take effect on January 1, 2026, applying only to offenses committed after that date.

Statutes affected:
Introduced: 13.2, 902.15, 707.2, 902.1A, 13B.4