Governor Tom Vilsack today (Monday) restated his opposition to the death penalty as some legislators say the best response to the death of a 10-year-old Cedar Rapids girl would be to reestablish capital punishment in Iowa. Vilsack doubts there’s enough support in the legislature for a death penalty bill. “I honestly don’t think it’s going to hit my desk,” Vilsack says. “I’m opposed to it.” Vilsack, who is Catholic, also lectured legislators about the timing of such a debate during the period of mourning for Pope John Paul the second, who opposed capital punishment. “As we consider (the Pope’s) life and his work, it’s probably not a good idea to talk about the death penalty today,” Vilsack says. Legislators are talking about other responses to the death of 10-year-old Jetseta Gage, a crime allegedly committed by a convicted sex offender who was released from prison in 1999. Vilsack says he’s asked lawmakers to put nearly one-and-a-half million more dollars on the prison unit that keeps sex offenders behind bars after their sentence is over if officials believe there’s chance the inmate will commit another sex crime if they’re released. Vilsack says that new unit for sexual predators “has been lost in this discussion.” He says sex offenders can be kept in that unit forever, if necessary. Some question why the state doesn’t do more to notify neighbors when a sex offender moves into town. “I’m happy to sit down with legislative leaders and others and department directors to talk about what can be done with regards to the Sex Offender Registry,” Vilsack says. “I think there is a limitation on how much you can do and how much information you can provide. We are still a fairly mobile society and people can move around, but to the extent that (the Sex Offender Registry) can be perfected, we’d be certainly supportive of it.”Over the weekend, the mayor of Brandon accused state officials of having their priorities backwards. When the town’s water supply had high nitrate levels, city officials had to go door to door to warn people, yet there was no such warning when a sex offender moved into town. “Every tragic circumstance and situation unveils the need for continued improvement,” Vilsack says. “I think the legislature is looking at this hard and we’re going to cooperate with them. We want to make sure, though, that whatever we do we fund. What we can’t have is a situation where we have grand plans and then no resources.” Vilsack says he’s willing to consider tougher laws for sex offenders, like the “two strikes and you’re in” proposal which would establish a life prison sentence for a second sex crime conviction. “That’s something I could take a look at,” Vilsack says. “We want to protect our children.”