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Thread: Michael Kiser Addison - New Hampshire Death Row

  1. #21
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    Day-long hearing set in death sentence appeal

    New Hampshire's only death-row inmate will have his day in court — all day — when the state Supreme Court hears arguments pertaining to his sentence.

    Michael Addison was sentenced to death for gunning down 35-year-old Manchester Police Officer Michael Briggs in 2006, when Briggs tried to arrest him on robbery charges.

    The justices in Addison's case will be deliberating the death penalty for the first time in more than 50 years — deciding, among other things, whether Addison's sentence is just or was a product of passion or prejudice.

    The justices will hear arguments in the case beginning Wednesday morning, holding four blocks of hearings, scheduled to end at 3 p.m.

    Court observers say the daylong hearing on Addison's conviction for killing a Manchester police officer and death sentence is unprecedented. A typical hearing before the justices lasts half an hour.

    If his sentence is upheld and carried out, Addison — now 32 — would be the first convict executed in New Hampshire since 1939.

    Former Chief Justice John Broderick, now dean of the University of New Hampshire School of Law, said the court, on occasion, has granted more time for arguments, citing the Claremont school funding cases as examples.

    "But an entire day? I don't know of another case where that's happened," Broderick told The Associated Press.

    Attorneys for Addison have raised 22 issues, with everything from the constitutionality of New Hampshire's death penalty statute to the political ambitions of former attorney general and now-U.S. Sen. Kelly Ayotte, in their appeal.

    Addison's lawyers want the court to vacate his death sentence and order a new sentencing hearing. They stress that jurors determined Addison shot Briggs to evade arrest but rejected the state's argument that he shot Briggs with the intention of killing him.

    Before Addison's case could reach this point, the Supreme Court first had to fashion the method it would use in weighing the fairness of his death penalty.

    Addison's lawyers argued his case should be compared to all other death penalty cases in this state and others, to test whether racial bias or other factors influenced his sentence. Addison is black; Briggs was white.

    The only other New Hampshire capital case in decades to reach the penalty phase was that of John Brooks — a wealthy white man convicted of plotting and paying for the killing of a handyman he suspected of stealing from him. A jury spared him a death sentence in 2008 — the same year Addison was sentenced to die.

    But the court ruled in October 2010 that it would compare his death sentence to cases nationwide in which a police officer was killed in the line of duty.

    The court stressed, in its 41-page ruling, that comparison cases do not have to precisely mirror the details of Addison's case.

    "Ultimately, no two capital murder defendants are alike," the ruling states. "Perfect symmetry and uniform consistency are not possible under a statutory scheme that requires juries to make individualized sentencing decisions based upon the unique circumstances of a case, given the nature of the crime and the character and background of the defendant."

    New Hampshire law requires the reversal of any death penalty imposed "under the influence of passion, prejudice or any other arbitrary factor." That law dates to the 1970s, when the U.S. Supreme Court ruled the death penalty unconstitutional in 1972 — prompting states to redraft their capital punishment laws to include stricter standards and procedures.

    The two men on New Hampshire's death row in 1972 had their death sentences — handed down in 1959 — converted to life in prison.

    Five lawyers from the Attorney General's office will be representing the state Wednesday — matched by five representing Addison.

    Addison will not be present. Inmates do not attend Supreme Court hearings.

    Seating for the public is limited to 50.

    http://www.sfgate.com/news/crime/art...#ixzz2C1k52zo4
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  2. #22
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    Lawyers for NH's only death row convict challenge robbery conviction

    The lawyers for a man convicted of shooting and killing a Manchester, N.H., police officer are challenging Michael Addison's armed robbery conviction.

    Addison was sentenced to death for killing Manchester Police Officer Michael Briggs in 2006, as Briggs was attempting to arrest him on armed robbery charges.

    Addison was convicted of robbing a Hudson convenience store days before the shooting.

    WMUR-TV (http://bit.ly/Tq0M7x ) reports that on Monday his lawyers challenged whether the same judge was allowed to preside over both the robbery and capital murder trials.

    Earlier this month, Addison's lawyers raised 22 issues on appeal in the death penalty case.

    http://www.therepublic.com/view/stor...-Killed-Appeal
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  3. #23
    Administrator Moh's Avatar
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    February 13, 2013

    NH officials discuss the prospect of execution

    By LYNNE TUOHY
    The Associated Press

    CONCORD, N.H. — New Hampshire — which last executed an inmate more than 70 years ago, by hanging — would likely carry out an execution in a prison gymnasium rather than construct a costly death chamber for its lone death row prisoner, Corrections Commissioner William Wren said Wednesday.

    Addressing a symposium on the death penalty at the University of New Hampshire School of Law, Wren said he and his staff are ‘‘dusting off’’ execution protocols from the 1930s but the $1.8 million needed to build a lethal injection chamber isn’t in the cards in a state where inmates are so rarely condemned to death.

    The symposium offered a rare, behind-the-scenes look at the case of Michael Addison, sentenced to death in 2008 for gunning down Manchester Police Officer Michael Briggs following a violent crime spree. If the state’s highest court upholds his conviction and death sentence, Addison could be the first convict executed in New Hampshire since 1939.

    Wren said Addison doesn’t really live on ‘‘death row’’ because the state no longer has one. He is housed in the state prison’s maximum security unit, living alongside other convicts.

    The last person executed in New Hampshire was Howard Long, an Alton shopkeeper who molested and beat a 10-year-old boy to death. He was hanged — still a viable form of execution in New Hampshire if lethal injection is not possible.

    Panelists made it clear Addison’s case threw a curve at a state criminal justice system that had no modern-day experience with capital litigation.

    Attorney Chris Keating, who supervised Addison’s defense, said there was no legal ‘‘infrastructure’’ in place for a death penalty case — no bank of motions built from other cases, no expertise and a severe dearth of resources to handle the astronomical costs of such a case. He likened it to being told to build a nuclear bomb for the first time.

    ‘‘The stakes are really high if I get it wrong,’’ he said.

    Keating said he and former Attorney General Kelly Ayotte had to approach the Executive Council to fund their case.

    ‘‘The difference was, Ayotte was welcomed and people were very anxious to provide her with the funding necessary,’’ Keating said. ‘‘I had to sheepishly ask for my $137,000 for initial spending.’’

    Addison’s defense at his trial alone cost $3 million, said Keating, who considered looking to hire a lead defense lawyer from another state because no New Hampshire lawyers had experience with death cases. He said it was sheer luck that a public defender with experience in death cases in Louisiana moved to the state in time to head Addison’s defense team.

    Judge Tina Nadeau, chief judge of the superior court, said capital cases magnify all aspects of a trial.

    ‘‘It’s like due process on steroids,’’ she said.

    For instance, the judge who presided over Addison’s case typically issues two or three orders during the course of a murder trial, Nadeau said. In Addison’s she filled two binders.

    Former Attorney General Phil McLaughlin was the only panelist willing to address a question about whether race — Addison is black, his victim white — contributed to his death sentence.

    He contrasted Addison’s sentence with that of John Brooks — a wealthy, white businessman convicted of paying others to kill a handyman he thought had stolen from his family. The same year Addison was sentenced to death a jury gave Brooks a life sentence.

    ‘‘I cannot imagine how any conscientious citizen could not be riveted by the contrast,’’ said McLaughlin, who cast a dissenting vote on a panel that voted in December 2010 to retain the death penalty.

    Keating said he doubted the state’s next death penalty case would cost less to defend, post-Addison.

    ‘‘The next capital case could have extraordinarily complex issues, identity issues,’’ Keating said. ‘‘You don’t get really efficient until you start doing a lot of them.’’

    http://www.boston.com/news/local/new...kgJ/story.html

  4. #24
    Administrator Heidi's Avatar
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    NH death row inmate's appeal targets Attorney General's office

    The entire New Hampshire Attorney General's office should disqualify itself from death row inmate Michael K. Addison's appeal and turn the case over to a special prosecutor given the state may have accessed key defense strategies and privileged documents when it recruited one of Addison's defense attorneys to work for its office last July.

    In a 40-page motion filed Monday, defense attorney Andrew R. Schulman asked the state Supreme Court to order the Attorney General's office to immediately remove itself from all direct or collateral appeals of the state's first modern-era death penalty case.

    Failing that, Schulman seeks a court order disqualifying anyone employed by or associated with the Attorney General's office in the two-month period when former New Hampshire Public Defender Lisa Wolford joined the office until she was effectively "screened" from prosecutors handling Addison's direct appeal last September.

    Not only was Wolford not "screened" to ensure prosecutors could not gain access to confidential information and strategies related to Addison's appeal, but Wolford also brought with her at least one confidential document related to the appeal with her to the Attorney General's office and installed it on its computer network, Schulman wrote. That document dealt with aggravating factors — an issue that has yet to be argued on appeal.

    New Hampshire Attorney General Joseph A. Foster said Thursday he has yet to review the motion.

    "I knew the issue was out there and a motion might be filed. We will be reviewing it and filing an appropriate objection. Other than that, I can't comment yet," Foster said. Foster was sworn in May 15 as Attorney General to succeed Michael A. Delaney, whose term ended March 31.

    Addison, 33, is the first and only person sentenced to death since the state's capital murder law went into effect in 1977. A Hillsborough County Superior Court North jury in 2008 found the former Boston street gang member, guilty of capital murder in the 2006 shooting death of Manchester Police Officer Michael L. Briggs, 35, and imposed the death penalty.

    Addison's appeal of his conviction and sentence has been briefed and argued before the state Supreme Court. An order is pending. If Addison does not prevail in this phase of the process, the appeal would proceed to the third stage to explore the issue of proportionality review.

    Wolford joined Addison's appellate defense team in 2009 while his appeal was pending. She met at least once with Addison on death row, was his attorney of record in the Supreme Court and worked extensively with his defense team in brainstorming and drafting legal strategies related to proportionality review and the sufficiency of aggravating factors needed to impose a death sentence.

    Addison's attorney claims Wolford was privy to what arguments the defense would make, what responses from the state it feared most and other critical strategies.

    "In poker terms, she not only knows the defense team's hand, but how the defense intends to play it. In chess terms, she knows how many moves ahead the defense has thought and how it is likely to react to the prosecution's moves and the court's rulings. In football terms, she has her old team's playbook," Schulman wrote.

    "In our profession's terms, she has confidential and privileged information including not only privileged client communications but also attorney work product consisting of the mental impressions of the defense team," he added.

    Schulman claims then Attorney General Delaney failed to implement an adequate screening procedure when Wolford joined his staff even though he was warned of this in writing by then Executive Director of the Public Defender Program Christopher Keating on June 11, 2012, about a month before Wolford became a prosecutor.

    While Delaney replied that he would "ensure Lisa Wolford is screened from any matter in which she had involvement as a public defender," Schulman claims Delaney failed to follow through on this promises. It was only two months later that screening measures were enacted, he claimed.

    If the court denies the defense request to disqualify the Attorney General's office from the appeal, the defense asked that a special master be appointed to supervise discovery and conduct fact finding to determine if any confidences were betrayed.

    http://www.unionleader.com/article/2...79/0/FRONTPAGE
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  5. #25
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    N.H. Supreme Court to issue ruling on death penalty, Addison appeal

    For the 1st time in more than half a century, New Hampshire's Supreme Court on Wednesday will rule on the constitutionality of the state's death penalty and whether the death sentence of a man convicted of killing a police officer will stand.

    The court will release its ruling in the appeal of Michael Addison, who was sentenced to death in 2008 for gunning down Manchester Police Officer Michael Briggs 2 years earlier as the officer was trying to arrest him in connection with a string of violent robberies. Addison is the only inmate on New Hampshire's death row.

    Besides the issues Addison's lawyers raised on appeal a year ago, the court will also review the fairness of his death sentence � comparing it to cases in other states in which a police officer was killed in the line of duty.

    If the court vacates Addison's death sentence, prosecutors would be barred from seeking the death penalty again. If it upholds the death sentence, Addison could become the 1st person executed in New Hampshire since 1939.

    Addison's lawyer, David Rothstein, argued that holding the trial in Manchester - in a courthouse 100 yards from police headquarters - injected passion and prejudice into the case. Prosecutors countered that both sides worked to guarantee a fair trial and that jurors certified their verdict was not influenced by arbitrary factors.

    The ruling comes as the New Hampshire Coalition Against the Death Penalty is launching a new campaign to repeal the death penalty. Gov. Maggie Hassan has said she would sign a repeal bill if it did not invalidate Addison's sentence.

    Briggs, 35, was 15 minutes from the end of his shift on Oct. 16, 2006, when he and his partner - both on bicycle patrol - confronted Addison in a dark alley. Jurors found that Addison shot Briggs in the head at close range to avoid arrest.

    Addison was also convicted of a violent rampage in the days leading up to Briggs' death, including 2 armed robberies and a drive-by shooting.

    (Source: The Associated Press)
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  6. #26
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    Top NH Court Upholds Death Sentence for Cop Killer

    New Hampshire's top court upheld the sentence of the state's only death row inmate, clearing the way for a convicted cop killer to become the first person executed in New Hampshire since 1939.

    Michael Addison, 33, was convicted of gunning down Michael Briggs as the 35-year-old Manchester police officer was attempting to arrest him on a string of armed robbery charges.

    The high court's unanimous ruling came nearly a year after it heard unprecedented daylong arguments the first death penalty appeal to come before it in 50 years.

    Addison's lawyers argued that holding the trial in a courthouse a stone's throw from the Manchester police department injected passion and prejudice into the jury's verdict.

    "The watershed event in this case was not moving the trial out of that courthouse," attorney David Rothstein argued.

    Prosecutors countered that both sides worked hard to guarantee Addison a fair trial and that jurors certified their verdict was not influenced by arbitrary factors.

    In its ruling, the court said: "We conclude that the sentence of death was not imposed under the influence of passion, prejudice or any other arbitrary factor."

    Briggs was 15 minutes from the end of his shift on Oct. 16, 2006, when he and his partner — both on bicycle patrol — confronted Addison in a dark alley. Jurors found that Addison shot Briggs in the head at close range to avoid arrest.

    Addison was later convicted of going on a violent rampage in the days before Briggs' death, including two armed robberies and a drive-by shooting.

    Because it was the first death penalty appeal in decades, the justices had to first determine the pool of cases to compare with Addison's to determine whether his sentence was influenced by race or other factors. Addison is black; Briggs was white.

    Addison's lawyers argued his sentence should be compared to all other death penalty cases in this state and others. The justices opted to compare it to 49 cases nationwide in which an officer was killed in the line of duty.

    The only other New Hampshire capital case in recent history to reach the penalty phase was that of John Brooks — a wealthy white man convicted of plotting and paying for the killing of a handyman he suspected of stealing from him. A jury spared him a death sentence in 2008 — the same year Addison was sentenced to die.

    The last person executed in New Hampshire was Howard Long, an Alton shopkeeper who molested and beat a 10-year-old boy to death. He was hanged — still a viable form of execution in New Hampshire if lethal injection is not possible.

    http://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory/n...tence-20798855
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  7. #27
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    Wow! A unanimous decision. I'm surprised.

    Now I wonder how long his state post-conviction appeal will take.

  8. #28
    Moderator Dave from Florida's Avatar
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    Don't hold your breath. There are many years of state and federal appeals ahead.

  9. #29
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    To read the opinion click below.

    New Hampshire v. Addison
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    "Y'all be makin shit up" ~ Markeith Loyd

  10. #30
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    Sen. Ayotte Says She's Condifent Supreme Court Will Uphold Death Sentence

    As attorney general, Kelly Ayotte was the lead prosecutor in the Addison case and she featured her role in her 2010 campaign for U.S. Senate.

    Ayotte says she expects the court will uphold Addison's death sentence.

    "There's 1 more set of review; the proportionality review that's required by law. And so certainly, I believe that will be upheld, that the death conviction will be upheld as a result of that review."

    In that review, the court will consider whether sentencing Addison to death for killing a police officer is proportional to sentences handed out in similar cases.

    Ayotte says she opposes repealing New Hampshire's death penalty, a proposal that state lawmakers will likely consider next year.

    "Particularly in cases for our police officers, it is important that in that narrow set of cases, that the death penalty is one of the penalties the attorney general can consider depending on the case."

    If the sentence stands, Addison would be the 1st person executed in New Hampshire since 1939.

    (Source: NHPR)
    An uninformed opponent is a dangerous opponent.

    "Y'all be makin shit up" ~ Markeith Loyd

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