The Concord Monitor of New Hampshire called for repeal of the state’s death penal­ty in a recent edi­to­r­i­al. The paper con­trast­ed the case of Michael Addison, the state’s only death row inmate, to that of John Brooks, who was con­vict­ed of hir­ing three hit­men to kill a handy­man, whom Brooks believed had stolen from him. Brooks received a sen­tence of life with­out parole. The Monitor not­ed, ​“Brooks was rich and white; Addison was poor and black.… Addison’s vic­tim had the full force of New Hampshire law enforce­ment watch­ing every twist and turn of the case; Brooks’s vic­tim was lit­tle known and quick­ly for­got­ten. Different lawyers, dif­fer­ent juries, dif­fer­ent cas­es. But it’s dif­fi­cult not to step back and won­der about the fair­ness of it all.” Addison’s death sen­tence was recent­ly upheld by the New Hampshire Supreme Court. The edi­to­r­i­al con­clud­ed by call­ing for repeal leg­is­la­tion in 2014, say­ing, ​“New Hampshire hasn’t used its death penal­ty in more than 70 years. We will be a bet­ter, fair­er, more humane state with­out it.” Read the full editorial below.

Editorial: It’s time to repeal the death penalty

It is to the sig­nif­i­cant cred­it of the pros­e­cu­tors in the cap­i­tal mur­der case against Michael Addison that their argu­ments with­stood numer­ous strong argu­ments from defense attor­neys before the New Hampshire Supreme Court. It is to the sig­nif­i­cant cred­it of the low­er court judge that the process was deemed fair.

But it is to the extreme detri­ment of New Hampshire as a whole that Addison is now one step clos­er to death. This week’s rul­ing should strength­en the resolve of those work­ing to over­turn the state’s death penal­ty statute, to keep New Hampshire gov­ern­ment from ever again play­ing exe­cu­tion­er in our name.

Addison is the man who shot a Manchester police offi­cer to death in 2006. His vic­tim, Michael Briggs, was a 35-year-old father of two from Concord. The shoot­ing fol­lowed a week­long crime spree, after which then-Attorney General Kelly Ayotte called Addison a ​“cold-blood­ed, cold­heart­ed, remorse­less killer” who deserved the death penal­ty for his crime. Addison’s lawyers said he fired the gun in a pan­ic, that his actions were reck­less but not pur­pose­ful. The jury sided with the state, and Addison was even­tu­al­ly sen­tenced to die, mak­ing him the only per­son on the state’s death row, in a state that hadn’t exe­cut­ed a soul since 1939.

About the same time, in a dif­fer­ent court­room, a dif­fer­ent New Hampshire jury was weigh­ing the case of John Brooks, a mil­lion­aire busi­ness­man accused of hir­ing three men to kill a handy­man who Brooks believed had stolen from him. Brooks, like Addison, was con­vict­ed of cap­i­tal mur­der, but his jury reject­ed the death penal­ty and sen­tenced him to life in prison instead.

Brooks was rich and white; Addison was poor and black. Brooks plot­ted his victim’s mur­der delib­er­ate­ly; Addison shot Briggs as he fled. Addison’s vic­tim had the full force of New Hampshire law enforce­ment watch­ing every twist and turn of the case; Brooks’s vic­tim was lit­tle known and quick­ly for­got­ten. Different lawyers, dif­fer­ent juries, dif­fer­ent cas­es. But it’s dif­fi­cult not to step back and won­der about the fair­ness of it all. In a state where the cap­i­tal mur­der statute is rarely used, it’s hard to imag­ine two more stark­ly different outcomes.

The Addison case isn’t over – not by far. The state Supreme Court still must decide whether Addison’s death sen­tence was exces­sive or dis­pro­por­tion­ate com­pared with the penal­ties imposed in sim­i­lar cas­es. Should the state win, there will no doubt be fed­er­al appeals that will take years to resolve.

In the mean­time, state law­mak­ers should take advan­tage of the new oppor­tu­ni­ty grant­ed them by a gov­er­nor who, for the first time in the mod­ern era, oppos­es the death penal­ty. They should repeal the cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment statute in 2014, know­ing full well that the sen­tence met­ed out to Brooks – life in prison with­out parole – is jus­tice enough for even the most remorse­less killers. New Hampshire hasn’t used its death penal­ty in more than 70 years. We will be a bet­ter, fair­er, more humane state without it.

(“Editorial: It’s time to repeal the death penal­ty,” Concord Monitor, November 10, 2013). See Editorials and Arbitrariness.

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