New Hampshire

Famous Capital Cases

Ruth Blay, exe­cut­ed in 1768, was the last woman exe­cut­ed in New Hampshire. She was accused of alleged­ly killing her still­born child — a crime of which she was exon­er­at­ed short­ly after her exe­cu­tion. A play was made about her death and a pop­u­lar song rec­og­niz­ing her inno­cence was sung local­ly in the Portsmouth area for many years. 

Thomas Powers was exe­cut­ed in 1796 for rape. He was the only African American man ever exe­cut­ed in New Hampshire and the only per­son ever exe­cut­ed in NH for a crime oth­er than murder.

Milestones in Abolition/​Reinstatement

New Hampshire has exe­cut­ed 26 peo­ple in its his­to­ry. The last exe­cu­tion was in 1939.

Howard Long was put to death in July of 1939. The rope used to hang him is still retained on dis­play in the Belknap County Sheriff’s office.

A bill to abol­ish the death penal­ty was passed by the House and Senate in 2000. The bills were vetoed by Governor Jeanne Shaheen. 

In 2004, as part of a nation­al cam­paign to end the death penal­ty for juve­nile offend­ers, a bill ban­ning the exe­cu­tion of those con­vict­ed of killing while under the age of 18 passed the House and Senate. It was vetoed by Governor Craig Benson. The next year the same bill was rein­tro­duced and passed again. It was signed by Governor John Lynch. 

In 2009, an abo­li­tion bill passed the House and was then amend­ed in the Senate to cre­ate a study com­mis­sion on the death penal­ty. Governor Lynch signed that bill and the com­mis­sion met for a year and issued a report in December 2010.

In April 2018, the House and Senate again vot­ed to abol­ish the death penal­ty. Governor Chris Sununu vetoed the bill on June 21, 2018.

In 2019, the leg­is­la­ture again vot­ed to abol­ish the death penal­ty, Governor Sununu vetoed the bill. On May 30, 2019, the leg­is­la­ture com­plet­ed its repeal of the state’s death-penal­ty statute, vot­ing to over­ride the veto. The repeal was not retroac­tive, leav­ing one per­son on the state’s death row.

New Hampshire ​“Firsts”

For many years, New Hampshire had the most restric­tive death penal­ty in the coun­try. It applied only in cas­es of homi­cide or treason. 

In 1834, New Hampshire’s Governor Badger was one of the nation’s first to call for abo­li­tion of the death penal­ty as part of the gallows movement.

Other Interesting Facts

New Hampshire still retains a nar­row death penal­ty statute, which only applies in six specific circumstances. 

New Hampshire does not cur­rent­ly have a death cham­ber. In 2010, the Department of Corrections esti­mat­ed that build­ing an exe­cu­tion cham­ber would cost about $1.7 mil­lion, but the leg­is­la­ture has not autho­rized funds to build it.

Resources

• New Hampshire Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty
• Department of Corrections
• Public Defender’s office
• Victims’ ser­vices
  

New Hampshire Execution Totals Since 1976