The New Hampshire House of Representatives passed a bill to estab­lish a Commission to Study the Death Penalty. Many offi­cials who have had first-hand expe­ri­ence with New Hampshire’s death penal­ty, includ­ing for­mer Attorneys General Phillip McLaughlin, Peter Heed and Greg Smith, for­mer Superior Court Chief Justice Walter Murphy and for­mer Supreme Court Justice William Batchelder, sup­port the estab­lish­ment of a com­mis­sion to study the state’s death penal­ty pro­ce­dures. If passed, the bill will estab­lish a bipar­ti­san com­mis­sion com­prised of 15 indi­vid­u­als includ­ing state rep­re­sen­ta­tives and sen­a­tors, lawyers, reli­gious groups, and fam­i­lies of murder victims. 

The Commission to Study the Death Penalty in New Hampshire would study dif­fer­ent aspects of the death penal­ty, including:

  • Whether the death penal­ty ratio­nal­ly serves a legit­i­mate peno­log­i­cal intent such as deterrence.
  • Whether the selec­tion of defen­dants in New Hampshire for cap­i­tal tri­als is arbi­trary, unfair, or dis­crim­i­na­to­ry in any way.
  • Whether the peno­log­i­cal inter­est in exe­cut­ing any­one con­vict­ed of mur­der is suf­fi­cient­ly com­pelling that the risk of an irre­versible mis­take is acceptable.
  • Whether alter­na­tives to the death penal­ty exist that would suf­fi­cient­ly ensure pub­lic safe­ty and address oth­er legit­i­mate social and peno­log­i­cal inter­ests, includ­ing the inter­ests of fam­i­lies of victims.

Source: Murder Victims’ Families for Human Rights. Posted March 8, 2008. See Recent Legislative Activity.


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