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A unanimous vote in the Iowa House provided a rare moment of goodwill during a legislative session marred by attacks on LGBTQ equality and dignity.

The 'progressive prosecutor' movement is facing a real test in Iowa FilterJuly 28, 2021 The County Attorney's Office in Polk County (Des Moines), Iowa has gotten little attention from criminal justice reform advocates—at least until March 2021, when County Attorney John Sarcone prosecuted a Des Moines Register reporter for covering a 2020 racial justice protest in a professional capacity. Violent crime in the county has soared during Sarone's decades-long "tough-on-crime" tenure. Between 2011 and 2016, it increased by over 33 percent in the Des Moines metro area—one of the ...

A Burlington man convicted of killing an LGBTQ teen in 2016 has lost his appeal. Jaron Purham, 28, was found guilty of first-degree murder in a 2018 trial and sentenced to life imprisonment. Purham and another man, Jorge Sanders-Galvez, were accused of killing 16-year-old Kedarie Johnson, who was gender-fluid and often dressed and presented as female. Prosecutors said at trial that Purham and Sanders-Galvez picked up Johnson intending to have sex, and upon learning Johnson was biologically male, killed him. Johnson's body was found in a Burlington alley with a plastic bag forced down his th...

January 22, 2021 Burlington, Ia-  A Burlington man convicted of the murder of an LGBTQ teen has lost his appeal. The Hawk Eye reports that 28-year-old Jaron Purham was sentenced to life in prison in 2018 after being convicted of first-degree murder.  He and another man were accused of killing 16-year-old Kedarie Johnson. Johnson was found dead in a Burlington alley with a plastic bag over his head, one down his throat, and two gunshot wounds to the chest. Purham appealed the verdict citing insufficiency of evidence and ineffective legal representation.  However, the three-judge panel o...

Legislation 'short-circuited' by COVID-19 has been reintroduced that would prevent a defendant from using a victim's sexual orientation or gender identity as a mitigating factor if charged with murder or any violent crime.