Elizabeth Collins' Parents Want Death Penalty Re-Instated in Iowa, Will Meet With Branstad

Drew Collins, the father of Elizabeth Collins, 8, and uncle of Lyric Cook-Morrissey, 10, the cousins from Evansdale whose bodies were found Dec. 5, wants the death penalty re-instated in Iowa.

He and his wife Heather Collins will meet with Gov. Terry Branstad Monday, along with the parents of two other kidnapped Iowa children and a state senator who says he will introduce legislation to reinstate the death penalty, abolished in Iowa nearly half a century ago.

"If someone murders a child, they need to be punished severely," Drew Collins told reporters before a Thursday memorial service for Elizabeth in Cedar Falls. "Anyone that murders a child, they don’t deserve to be with us anymore. It’s just unacceptable."

He and Heather have often spoken about their strong Christian faith and said they forgive the person or persons who kidnapped and killed their daughter and niece. But they still want to see the culprit face capital punishment.

"I can forgive someone and Heather can forgive someone, but they still have to meet justice. They have to be punished for what they’ve done," he said. "It’s just not fair that they can take a life and can sit in prison and live their life out. And their family can go see them. We don’t get to see our daughter. She’s gone."

Noreen Gosch of West Des Moines, mother of missing paperboy Johnny Gosch;  and Addonis Hill, whose daughter was kidnapped and murdered in Waterloo in 2006, will also attend the meeting.

Also attending will be state Sen. Ken Sorenson, a Milo Republican who wants to bring back the death penalty, abolished in 1965, as a deterrent to kidnapping, rape and murder. If the person who killed the girls knew he or she could face death if convicted, Elizabeth Collins and her cousin, Lyric Cook-Morrissey, might not have been killed, Sorenson said.

Branstad has said he supports reinstatement of the death penalty under limited circumstances, but said this week it isn’t a legislative priority in the session that begins Jan. 14.

The meeting is closed to the public, but the parents and Sorenson will take questions from the media at its conclusion.

Gosch, whose son vanished in 1982 on his paper route, agrees with Sorenson. She told Patch last week that reinstating the death penalty is an appropriate response to Iowa’s “kidnapping problem.”

She said that from the third week in June to mid-October, Iowa had 42 kidnapping attempts, “more than we have ever had during that block of time in over 30 years.”

“We need it,” Gosch said. “What we are doing to protect children is not working. We must do something different.”

Gosch worked closely with Branstad on legislation known as the Johnny Gosch Bill that required law enforcement authorities to immediately begin an investigation when a child is reported missing. Previously, they had the option to wait up to 72 hours.

Since capital punishment was repealed in Iowa, six attempts to reinstate it have failed in the Iowa Legislature.