It might not have the dazzle of paid family leave, nor the timeliness of Medicaid expansion reauthorization, but Senate Minority Leader Jeff Woodburn is predicting one legislative effort will take center stage next year: death penalty repeal.
The Whitefield Democrat said the latest push by Rep. Renny Cushing, D-Hampton, will have his personal support next session. And amid the usual partisan rancor, Woodburn said, the topic is one whose positions cross party lines, making its success or failure particularly inscrutable.
Still, Woodburn said he thinks 2018 is the year for it to happen. Cushing, who has submitted a legislative service request for repeal, was unavailable for comment.
It’s an oft-traveled road for the New Hampshire Legislature, ever since 2000, when a repeal bill comfortably passed the House and Senate. That effort was vetoed by then-Gov. Jeanne Shaheen, but similar attempts have been made by members of both parties in the intervening years.
Most recently, while efforts have passed the House, the Senate has deadlocked in 2014 and 2016 on efforts to repeal.
The latest was co-led by Sen. Kevin Avard, R-Concord, who said at the time that he had dropped his long-held support for the death penalty out of concern for the potential innocence of prisoners. Avard did not reply to a request for comment.
New Hampshire’s capital punishment laws are relatively narrow, applicable to murders of police officers, judges and prosecutors, or in killings during kidnappings, robberies and sexual assault. And the law is rarely invoked; no execution has taken place in the state since 1939.
But the topic has been an emotional minefield since 2008, when Michael Addison was sentenced to death for the murder of Manchester police Officer Michael Briggs.
Opponents of repeal say Addison, the only person on death row in New Hampshire, exemplifies the need for a strong deterrent against police violence.
Off the heels of last year’s deadlock, and with nine new senators in the chamber, Woodburn said he thinks the winds will shift. But he said conviction in this area comes down to personal conscience, and he’s not going to wrangle any votes beyond his own.
“This is not a party line vote – we do not whip anyone, we do not bring it up. It is not a caucus decision, and I believe the Republicans have the same view,” he said. “They’re all over the map on this issue.”
Source: Concord Monitor, Ethan DeWitt, October 21, 2017
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"One is absolutely sickened, not by the crimes that the wicked have committed,
but by the punishments that the good have inflicted." -- Oscar Wilde
