Governor Terry Branstad has turned down applications from seven Iowa inmates to commute their prison sentences — including three who are serving life. The governor turned down the request to commute the sentences of 52-year-old Leonard Gregory and 67-year-old Robert Kern — both are serving life for first-degree murder convictions.
Gregory was sentenced for a crime committed in January of 1981 in Jackson County, while Kern committed his crime in April of 1979 in Cedar County. The third request to commute a life sentence came from 60-year-old Michael Lang, who is serving his sentence for first-degree kidnapping in a Woodbury County case in 1988.
The other requests involved 42-year-old Bryan Jasa, serving 55-years for attempted murder, first-degree robbery and assault in Woodbury County in 1996; 35-year-old Fotunato Lira Junior is serving 65 years for first-degree robbery, voluntary manslaughter and other charges in Scott County in 1997; 42-year-old Ricardo McGlothin, serving 50 years for second-degree murder in 2002 in Davis County; and 30-year-old Paul Quigley, serving a 25-year sentence for second-degree sexual abuse in 2000 in Muscatine County.