New Hampshire Senate Passes Death-Penalty Repeal With Veto-Proof Majority

In a vote death-penal­ty oppo­nents praised as ​“his­toric,” a veto-proof super­ma­jor­i­ty of the New Hampshire leg­is­la­ture gave final approval to a bill that would repeal the state’s death penal­ty statute. By a vote of 17 – 6, the sen­a­tors vot­ed on April 11, 2019 to end cap­i­tal pros­e­cu­tions in the Granite State, exceed­ing the two-thirds major­i­ty nec­es­sary to over­ride an antic­i­pat­ed veto by Governor Chris Sununu. In March, the state House of Representatives passed the same abo­li­tion bill, HB 455, by a veto-proof 279 – 88 super­ma­jor­i­ty. For the sec­ond con­sec­u­tive year, the bill received bipar­ti­san sup­port, includ­ing spon­sor­ship by sev­en Democratic and six Republican spon­sors across both leg­isla­tive hous­es. Twelve Democratic and five Republican sen­a­tors vot­ed in favor of repeal. An iden­ti­cal bill to repeal the death penal­ty passed the leg­is­la­ture in 2018, but was vetoed by Gov. Chris Sununu, and an attempt to over­ride the veto fell two votes short in the Senate.

The Governor’s office issued a state­ment after the vote say­ing that Sununu ​“con­tin­ues to stand with crime vic­tims, mem­bers of the law enforce­ment com­mu­ni­ty, and advo­cates for jus­tice in oppos­ing a repeal of the death penal­ty.” Repeal advo­cates quick­ly respond­ed to that claim, not­ing that numer­ous retired pros­e­cu­tors, mem­bers of law enforce­ment, and rel­a­tives of mur­der vic­tims had tes­ti­fied in favor of repeal. Rep. Renny Cushing (D – Rockingham), whose father and broth­er-in-law were mur­dered in two sep­a­rate inci­dents, was one of the lead­ing pro­po­nents of the bill. Cushing has described the death penal­ty as a ​“rit­u­al­ized killing” that does noth­ing to com­pen­sate for a victim’s family’s loss. ​“The gov­er­nor has posi­tioned him­self as say­ing he’s veto­ing the repeal of the death penal­ty because he cares about law enforce­ment and vic­tims, but he’s refused to meet with mur­der vic­tims’ fam­i­ly mem­bers who oppose the death penal­ty,” Cushing said. Sen. Ruth Ward (R – Stoddard), whose father was killed when she was 7 years old, spoke briefly before cast­ing her vote: ​“He nev­er saw us grow up. My moth­er for­gave who­ev­er it was, and I will vote in favor of this bill,” she said.

During the Senate debate, sen­a­tors men­tioned costs, racial inequities, and wrong­ful con­vic­tions among their rea­sons for sup­port­ing repeal. Senator John Reagan (R – Deerfield), a Republican who vot­ed in favor of repeal, told The New York Times that he doesn’t trust the gov­ern­ment with cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment. ​“The more and more expe­ri­ence I had with gov­ern­ment, I con­clud­ed that the gen­er­al incom­pe­ten­cy of gov­ern­ment didn’t make them the right peo­ple to decide life and death,” he said. The New Hampshire leg­isla­tive vote reflects emerg­ing bipar­ti­san­ship in state leg­isla­tive efforts to repeal the death penal­ty. ​“The vote to end New Hampshire’s death penal­ty includ­ed many con­ser­v­a­tive Republican law­mak­ers,” said Hannah Cox, nation­al man­ag­er of Conservatives Concerned About the Death Penalty. ​“They join a grow­ing num­ber of GOP state leg­is­la­tors around the coun­try who feel strong­ly that cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment does not com­port with their con­ser­v­a­tive beliefs, such as lim­it­ed gov­ern­ment, fis­cal respon­si­bil­i­ty, and valu­ing life.” Republican-backed bills to abol­ish the death penal­ty or lim­it its use have been intro­duced in a num­ber of states this year, includ­ing Georgia, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, and Wyoming.

The New Hampshire repeal bill applies only to future crimes, and does not address the fate of Michael Addison, the only per­son on New Hampshire’s death row. No one has been exe­cut­ed in New Hampshire since 1939. If the bill becomes law, New Hampshire will be the 21^st state to abol­ish cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment and the ninth in the past 15 years.