By GLYNIS HART
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CLAREMONT—Opponents of the death penalty in New Hampshire are hoping to repeal the state’s capital punishment law this year. Although the state legislature passed the repeal last year, it was vetoed by Gov. Chris Sununu. At the time, the Senate vote was two votes shy of a veto-proof majority.
The House of Representatives passed a motion to repeal by 279-88 on March 7. A matching Senate bill looks likely to pass, as 16 of the 30 freshman senators have stated their support of repeal.
“With 16 votes we believe we have a veto-proof majority,” said John Michael Dumais of the New Hampshire Commission to Abolish the Death Penalty. “We definitely have the votes as far as we know.”
Rep. John Callum (R-Sullivan County Dist. 6) disagreed. “I know the Democratic side of the house believes that it’s veto-proof, but in order to reach that majority they’d have to have several conservatives and libertarians go across the aisle. I don’t think they’re going to get there.”
Callum supports keeping the death penalty.
“I don’t see the state putting people to death with a legitimate shot at being exonerated,” said Callum. “Especially with DNA evidence, although nothing is 100 percent infallible. I think the death penalty is a tool that should remain on the table, used or not. I’m not saying it should be used in every case, but some people, what they do is so egregious the best thing to do is put them away.
“Some of these crimes lately — you walk into a church of any kind, Christian, Muslim, Jewish, I don’t care — and shoot people on their knees, praying. That to me is so egregious to my mind the only thing to do is put [the killer] to death,” said Callum.
Rep. Brian Sullivan (D- Sulllivan County Dist. 1) said the floor debate in the House on this bill was unlike any other he’s seen. “It was one of the most moving experiences I’ve had in there. A lot of lengthy debates are not heard by everyone —people get up to stretch their legs, get coffee, or they’re talking to each other. This time everyone stayed in their seats. It was very quiet; people were listening intently.”
Sullivan said he’s been active in the movement to repeal capital punishment.
“It’s been a core value for most if not all of my life,” said Sullivan. “People don’t realize that families of murder victims are forced to continually relive the experience of the trial, as they go through it over and over again in a seemingly endless series of appeals. If the person gets life in prison without parole, generally speaking he’s quietly shut away and the families of the victims can have some peace.”
The last person executed by the State of New Hampshire was killed in 1939. Currently there is one person on death row in the state: Michael Addison, a black man convicted of killing a white police officer, Michael Briggs, in 2008. Should the repeal pass, it won’t affect Addison’s fate.
“It’s a prospective law,” said Dumais. “It only applies to future situations.”
However, putting Addison to death could be complicated. States that use the death penalty have struggled in recent years to obtain the drugs used for lethal injections. The European Union banned the export of drugs for lethal injection in 2011. U.S. Company Pfizer makes the drugs used for lethal injections, but requires its buyers to certify they will not be used in that way.
“States are having to go to shady places in Third World countries to obtain the drugs. It’s very, very problematic,” said Dumais.
Further, the state lacks an execution chamber.
“It’s definitely complicated,” said Dumais. “In 2010 the cost was estimated at $1.7 million to develop a death penalty chamber.”
Death penalty lawyers add another expense to the process. Since New Hampshire has so few executions, it also lacks lawyers prepared to appeal a death sentence. Because of the severity of the penalty, defendants on death row are entitled to public defense. Prosecuting Addison’s case, which is currently appealed in federal court, has cost the state $5.5 million so far, and may eventually cost as much as $10 million.
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