Quick Facts
Biography
Charles A. Kelly (died September 6, 1962) was the last person executed by Iowa. In 1965, Iowa abolished its death penalty and no one has been executed by the state since then.
Kelly and Charles Brown were together convicted by a jury of the murder of a man in Walnut, Iowa. The court sentenced them both to death by hanging; Brown was executed at the Iowa State Penitentiary in Fort Madison on July 24, 1962, and Kelly was hanged at the same prison on September 6.
In 1965, the Iowa General Assembly passed a law that abolished the death penalty as a possible punishment; it was signed into law by Governor Harold Hughes. Although there have been a number of attempts to reinstate the death penalty in Iowa, none have been successful. Since Kelly's executions, prisoners of the United States federal government have been executed in Iowa but no one has been executed under Iowa law.
General references
- Fred N. Watts (1965). Iowa State Penitentiary, 1839–1965 (Fort Madison: Iowa State Police)
- Des Moines Register, 1962-09-06