The New Hampshire House will vote this week whether to repeal the death penalty – just three months after the first death sentence in the state was handed down in 50 years.
A House committee is recommending keeping the death penalty and instead establishing a commission to study capital punishment. The bill’s odds are long even if it passes the House.
Gov. John Lynch opposes repealing capital punishment.
A repeal bill passed the House and Senate in 2000 but was vetoed by then-Gov. Jeanne Shaheen. A similar bill failed last year by 12 votes in the House. Lynch opposes a repeal.
Michael Addison was sentenced to death in December for killing Manchester Police Officer Michael Briggs in 2006. No execution date has been scheduled because Addison is appealing the sentence.