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Thread: New Hampshire Capital Punishment News

  1. #11
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    Lawmaker Seeks To Repeal Death Penalty

    Law Enforcement Calls Penalty Effective Deterrent

    Two months after Michael Addison received the first death penalty sentence in New Hampshire in 50 years for shooting and killing a police officer, one lawmaker says it's time to repeal the law.

    The proposal generated intense debate at the State House on Tuesday. Opponents of the death penalty call it "frontier justice" and argued before the Criminal Justice Committee that it's time for the law to come off the books. But law enforcement officials called it a matter of public safety.

    From the standpoint of the Manchester Police Department, the debate over the death penalty in New Hampshire is centered on the 2006 murder of Officer Michael Briggs.

    "I saw the due process that Michael Addison got, and I thought it was remarkable," Chief David Mara said. "I thought the opportunity he had to spare himself was amazing. Michael Briggs didn't get any of that."

    Setting the moral aspect of the death penalty aside, those who want to repeal it also cited the cost. The two capital murder trials involving Addison and John Brooks last year cost more than $1 million, and that's before the appeals process begins in both cases.

    Some argued about the image having the death penalty creates for New Hampshire.

    "We are not Texas. We are New Hampshire," said bill sponsor Rep. Steven Lindsey, D-Cheshire. "We attract visitors and investors to come here, and I like to think of us as the Switzerland of North America."

    New Hampshire Attorney General Kelly Ayotte also testified, making it clear that she believes repealing the death penalty would put police officers and judges at greater risk from desperate criminals.

    "What deterrence will there be to career criminals who may already be facing a life sentence at the time they are stopped by a police officer?" Ayotte said. "Why wouldn't they pull the trigger and take the chance at getting way?"

    The bill has not yet been approved for the House floor. Both sides of the controversial issue said that a review of the law is healthy.

    Other death penalty bills are also being considered. One calls for a moratorium on executions until a commission can be formed to study the matter, while another would allow for death by firing squad in certain cases.

    http://www.wmur.com/news/18684475/detail.html

  2. #12
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    AG: group should study expanding death penalty

    CONCORD, N.H. (AP) -- Death penalty opponents are pushing for a commission they hope will lead to abolishing capital punishment in New Hampshire, but the state's top prosecutor says not so fast.

    The House Criminal Justice and Public Safety Committee recently recommended creating the study commission. If the bill becomes law, Attorney General Kelly Ayotte or someone from her office will sit on the commission, which would issue a report by the end of next year.

    Ayotte says she thinks any group studying the issue ought to look not just at repealing the death penalty, but expanding it to include other crimes, such as serial killers or those who commit multiple murders in one setting.

    http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories...MPLATE=DEFAULT

  3. #13
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    March 26, 2009

    N.H. House votes to end death penalty

    Three months after a man was sentenced to die for killing a police officer - New Hampshire's first death sentence in 50 years - the House voted yesterday to repeal capital punishment.

    The chamber voted 193 to 174 to send the repeal bill to the Senate, where its fate is uncertain. Governor John Lynch, a Democrat, said he would veto the bill if it reached his desk.

    "There are some crimes so heinous that I believe capital punishment is warranted," Lynch said after the vote.

    Michael Addison was sentenced to death in December for killing Michael Briggs, a Manchester police officer, in 2006. No execution date has been scheduled because Addison is appealing the sentence.

    Law enforcers have lined up against the repeal, led by Attorney General Kelly Ayotte, who prosecuted Addison. But the New Hampshire Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers says death penalty sentences are unfairly applied.

    Renny Cushing, a Hampton Democrat whose father was shot to death in 1988, led the fight to repeal the death penalty. After his father's killing, Cushing founded Murder Victims' Families for Reconciliation.

    "No matter how many times you kill, that doesn't bring anybody back," he said. Cushing asked the House to repeal the law "in the name of my father."

    But Representative Stanley Stevens, a Wolfeboro Republican who supports the death penalty, listed law enforcement officers killed in the line of duty over the years. He said the law is a covenant with officers that their deaths would be avenged.

    "We ask them to stand between us and lawlessness," Stevens said.

    A bill to repeal the law passed the House and Senate in 2000 but was vetoed by then-Governor Jeanne Shaheen, now a US senator.

    A similar bill failed last year by 12 votes in the House. The state's last execution was in 1939.

    Two men were sentenced to death in the state in 1959, but their lives were spared when the US Supreme Court struck down state death penalty laws in 1972.

    Ayotte reiterated her support for the law yesterday before the vote was taken.

    "I think it's particularly important for our law enforcement given all they do for public safety, putting their lives on the line, that there be a potential punishment in murder cases," she said.

    New Hampshire allows capital punishment for six types of crimes, including the murder of a police officer.

    Death penalty opponents questioned the fairness of capital punishment, especially after millionaire John Brooks, who is white, received a life sentence in November for hiring others to kill a Derry repairman. Addison, who is black, could not afford private counsel.

    Other death penalty opponents cited the high cost of capital cases.

    http://www.boston.com/news/local/new...death_penalty/

  4. #14
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    July 14, 2009

    CONCORD, N.H. — It's been 70 years since New Hampshire's last execution.

    On July 14, 1939, Howard Long of Alton was hanged, the 12th person in state history to be put to death.

    The 33-year-old Long confessed, but pleaded insanity to molesting and then fatally beating 10-year-old Neville Jensen of Laconia. A jury found him guilty and recommended capital punishment.

    Jensen left home to mail a letter and was found in woods in Gilford on Sept. 10, 1937.

    Earlier this year, legislators tabled a bill that would have repealed the state's death penalty, months after Michael Addison was sentenced to die for killing Police Officer Michael Briggs.

    http://www.boston.com/news/local/new...ast_execution/

  5. #15
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    December 17, 2009

    NH House committee blocks death penalty bill

    CONCORD, N.H. — New Hampshire House leaders voted Thursday to block capital murder legislation named after a Mont Vernon woman killed with a machete in her bed during a burglary.

    The bill would make home invasion killings a death penalty offense. The same bill already has been filed in the Senate.

    The House Rules Committee voted 6-4 Thursday along party lines to deny Mont Vernon Republican William O'Brien's request to introduce the bill after House deadlines.

    Democrats shot down the request. Some noted the bill would duplicate the Senate measure. Others questioned if the request was urgent and noted that no similar law change was sought since the 2001 slayings of Dartmouth professors Half and Susanne Zantop in their home by two young men.

    Deputy House Speaker Linda Foster, a Rules Committee member and Democrat from Mont Vernon, voted against the bill for those reasons. She also said the issue belongs before a special commission studying the death penalty.

    O'Brien said he was disappointed that Democratic committee members found Kimberly Cates' death "so insignificant that the New Hampshire House would not have time to even discuss this particular brand of thrill killing."

    Foster bristled at O'Brien's suggestion her vote was anything but a personal decision.

    "I find it demeaning that someone would insinuate life and death is a partisan issue," Foster said.

    Foster said her constituents have not asked her to sign onto O'Brien's bill and don't believe capital murder changes should be turned "around on a dime because of a particular incident."

    House rules allow members to ask for bills to be introduced late based on an urgent or compelling need or due to unforeseen events.

    Five young men have been charged in the attack. Indictments in the case are pending.

    Cates, 42, was killed Oct. 4. Her 11-year-old daughter was attacked but survived.

    O'Brien argues people have a right to go to their homes and be safe. He said his bill was needed to send a message that society will protect the sanctity of the home and that home invaders will be punished harshly.

    Even if the measure passed, the stiffer penalty could not be applied in the Cates' case.

    Under the measure, prosecutors would have to prove home invaders entered with the specific intent to kill the occupants of the house for the crime to be punishable by death.

    New Hampshire's death penalty law has more restrictions than any state that allows capital punishment. New Hampshire allows capital punishment for six types of crimes, including killing a police officer.

    Last year, a man was sentenced to die for killing a Manchester police officer -- the state's first death sentence in 50 years. The state's last execution took place in 1939.

    The U.S. Supreme Court halted executions in 1972 and lifted the ban four years later. Of the 36 states that allow capital punishment, only New Hampshire and Kansas have had no executions since 1976, according to the Death Penalty Information Center in Washington, D.C.

    http://www.boston.com/news/local/new..._penalty_bill/

  6. #16
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    February 1, 2010

    NH Senate holds hearing on death penalty bill

    CONCORD, N.H. (AP) - New Hampshire's Legislature historically has shied away from expanding the state's death penalty statute, but the horrific death of a Mont Vernon woman in her bed during a burglary is the inspiration behind legislation to make future home invasions a capital offense.

    The bill is named after 42-year-old Kimberly Cates, who was killed with a machete Oct. 4. Her 11-year-old daughter also was attacked but survived. Five young men have been charged in the attack. Indictments are pending.

    The Senate Judiciary Committee holds a hearing on the bill Tuesday afternoon. The House, which voted to repeal the death penalty last year, refused to allow the same bill to be introduced after its deadlines.

    http://www.wcax.com/global/story.asp?s=11913501

  7. #17
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    CONCORD, N.H. -- A commission studying New Hampshire's death penalty law will hear from those who are for it and against it.

    The commission will hold its first public hearing on Friday.

    A coalition of opponents of the death penalty, including crime victims, clergy and a man who spent nearly 19 years on death row for a crime he didn't comment, are expected to turn out to speak in favor of repealing the law.

    Lawmakers created the commission to review all aspects of the capital murder law.

    The hearing will be held at 10 a.m. in the Legislative Office Building in Concord.

    http://www.wmur.com/politics/22462724/detail.html

  8. #18
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    Corrections Officer Calls for Death Penalty Repeal

    Execution isn’t a harsh enough punishment for some convicted felons. So says a corrections official, who wants murderers to get life in prison.

    One by one, activists who want lawmakers to abolish the death penalty paraded in front of a commission studying the issue.

    They included an innocent man who spent 19 years on death row, several members of the clergy and some people whose relatives had been murdered.

    And they included Richard Van Wickler, superintendent of the Cheshire County Department of Corrections, who fiercely opposes capital punishment.

    Supt. Richard Van Wickler: “I believe the penalty of death sets the offender free. They escape the misery of who they are. I want dangerous offenders to be incapacitated and I want them to live in an uncomfortable existence.”

    Furthermore, Wickler said, he does not believe that the death penalty serves as a deterrent to violent crime.

    The Senate created the commission after legislation to repeal capital punishment passed the House last year but looked as if it would fail in the Senate.

    http://www.nhpr.org/node/29294

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    Manchester Officer Calls for Death Penalty Support

    A Manchester police officer told a commission studying the death penalty that members must support it.

    After legislation to repeal the state’s death penalty passed the House but looked like it would fail in the Senate last year, lawmakers created a commission to study the issue.

    That commission, made up of judges, attorneys, and others invested in the capital punishment dilemma, met for the second time in Concord.

    In emotional testimony, Captain Gerald Lessard reminded members about the murder of his colleague, Officer Michael Briggs, in 2006.

    Captain Gerald Lessard: "How do we as police officers reconcile the fact that fewer than four years after a brother officer was murdered and the defendant was sentenced to death, that the state of New Hampshire may decide to repeal the death penalty?”

    Lessard said he believes the death penalty serves as a deterrent to people who might otherwise kill police officers.

    Attorney Lawrence Vogelman gently pushed back, saying that the death penalty didn’t deter Michael Briggs’ killer, Michael Addison.

    Addison was sentenced to death for Briggs’ murder and sits on death row.

    http://www.nhpr.org/node/29293

  9. #19
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    March 7, 2010

    NH Senate to vote on death penalty bill

    CONCORD, N.H. — New Hampshire's Senate is scheduled to vote Wednesday on capital murder legislation named after a Mont Vernon woman killed with a machete in her bed during a burglary.

    A Senate committee is recommending more study of the bill.

    The bill is named after 42-year-old Kimberly Cates, who was killed in a burglary Oct. 4. Her 11-year-old daughter was also attacked but survived. The bill would make home invasion killings a death penalty offense.

    Under the bill, prosecutors would have to prove home invaders entered with the specific intent to kill the occupants of the house for the crime to be punishable by the death penalty.

    The House blocked introduction of an identical bill.

    http://www.boston.com/news/local/new..._penalty_bill/

  10. #20
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    Senate sends death penalty bill to study group

    CONCORD MONITOR - The state Senate yesterday voted 14-10 to ask a death penalty commission to look at applying capital punishment to murders that take place during home invasions.The Senate voted to send to interim study a bill prompted by the October break-in at a Mont Vernon home, in which Kimberly Cates was murdered and her daughter severely injured.

    State Sen. Sheila Roberge, a Bedford Republican, said she was "disappointed the Senate Democrats believe someone breaking into your home and killing you should not be included in the death penalty laws."

    Republican gubernatorial candidate John Stephen also criticized Senate Democrats for not passing the bill, arguing that the death penalty "is a deterrent to criminals committing the most heinous crimes."

    Democrats said the bill should fall under the existing commission, which is already looking at all aspects of the death penalty, including whether it should be expanded.

    http://www.nashuatelegraph.com/news/...-to-study.html

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