Where's The Death Penalty You Promised, Governor Culver?

Remember when Chet Culver lied about wanting the death penalty in Iowa again?  We didn't hear jack about it in the Iowa Legislature when the Democrats were running the asylum, so it was convenient for Culver to appear "tough on crime" while not actually doing anything about it.

And look where we are today, with two women murdered in cold blood in convenience store robberies in northern Iowa yesterday.

There's a suspect.  He's 17 years old and from Minnesota.  Even if Iowa had the death penalty the usual bunch of pro-criminal/anti-death penalty types wouldn't want it applied against a 17 year old.

You've got to wonder if the judge will allow the accused murderer to make bail like District Judge Marsha Bergan allowed a couple weeks ago in Davenport.

I wonder if we'll be able to find out how many times the accused, Michael Richard Swanson, has been in and out of juvenile court over the years? 

Will any of the usual bunch of bleeding-asshole columnists at Iowa's newspapers dig into Swanson's legal problems?  I doubt we'll see anything that nails the juvenile legal system because the media needs to protect those judges and lawyers from, you know, politics. 

Oh, I'm sure we'll be fed the usual bullshit sob stories about how he was such a nice kid.  Or maybe he had a troubled upbringing.  We should feel soooooo sorry for him.  Better yet, exploit the murdered and then exploit the murderer.  Isn't that how it's done?

Cue Terry Branstad to give superficial talk about re-instituting the death penalty and then the likes of Rekha Basu to go on and on and on about how much she hates the death penalty and the Register to run another series about how expensive it is to have the death penalty (only because your comrades in the legal profession make it that way).  Then we can have Mike "Kiss My Ass!!!  Fuck You!!!" Gronstal go on about how he would stop any death penalty bill in the Iowa Senate.  This is all so predictable.