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.