Renny Cushing, Victim-Advocate Who Led New Hampshire Death-Penalty Repeal Effort, Dies at 69

New Hampshire State Representative Robert ​“Renny” Cushing (pic­tured), a long­time vic­tim-advo­cate who led the Granite State’s suc­cess­ful efforts to repeal the death penal­ty, died March 7, 2022 after a mul­ti-year bat­tle with prostate cancer. 

For more than two decades, Cushing, whose father and broth­er-in-law were mur­dered in sep­a­rate inci­dents years apart, was the face of death-penal­ty abo­li­tion in New Hampshire and a lead­ing advo­cate of the move­ment to end the death penal­ty nation­wide. Bipartisan majori­ties of the New Hampshire leg­is­la­ture vot­ed three times to abol­ish the state’s death penal­ty in 2000, 2018, and 2019, only to see New Hampshire gov­er­nors of both polit­i­cal par­ties veto the leg­is­la­tion. In 2019, Cushing’s leg­isla­tive work on the issue cul­mi­nat­ed when the leg­is­la­ture over­rode Governor Chris Sununu’s veto to make New Hampshire the twen­ty-first state to abol­ish the death penal­ty.

Cushing had long opposed the death penal­ty intel­lec­tu­al­ly before his father was shot to death in his fam­i­ly home. That tragedy caused him to rethink his val­ues. In a July 2019 Discussions With DPIC pod­cast, Cushing said if he had changed his views, ​“that would have only giv­en over more pow­er to the killers, that would have only giv­en more pow­er to the act of mur­der, because not only would my father be tak­en from me, but, so too, would my val­ues. … [I] care a lot about the death penal­ty, as a sur­vivor, about what val­ues we’re going to hold as a soci­ety. Because if we let peo­ple who kill turn us to killers, then, you know, that is a tri­umph of evil.” 

Cushing was intense­ly aware of what he described as the addi­tion­al ​“bur­den” of being a sur­vivor of a homi­cide vic­tim and a death-penal­ty oppo­nent. ​“I think the most impor­tant thing that I help do, and that oth­er vic­tims’ sur­vivors help do,” he said, ​“is change the polit­i­cal cli­mate, so that peo­ple can real­ize that you can be both pro-vic­tim and anti-death penal­ty. And that’s real­ly impor­tant if we’re going to have a thought­ful dis­cus­sion about pub­lic pol­i­cy in the halls of the state hous­es, as well as the cour­t­hous­es, in this country.”

Cushing con­tin­ued his work in the leg­is­la­ture long after being diag­nosed with can­cer in 2019, being ele­vat­ed by his col­leagues to the post of New Hampshire House Democratic Leader in 2020. He remained in that posi­tion until being admit­ted to hos­pice care and tak­ing a leave of absence just five days before his death. Cushing’s col­leagues in the leg­is­la­ture offered remem­brances of his com­mit­ment to social jus­tice and public service. 

“Renny nev­er put him­self first and that was nev­er more obvi­ous than in his valiant fight against can­cer. When any­one else would have put aside all but per­son­al con­cerns, Renny nev­er retreat­ed from devo­tion to the pro­gres­sive caus­es that had been his lifeblood, or from his ser­vice to the peo­ple of New Hampshire and the insti­tu­tion of the House,” Acting House Democratic Leader David Cote said in a state­ment. ​“He was a cit­i­zen of New Hampshire, but also a cit­i­zen of the World, who loved human­i­ty both indi­vid­u­al­ly and in the abstract. He held no grudges but took no pris­on­ers. He lived by the ideals of Justice and Mercy. He can­not be replaced.”

Acting Deputy Democratic Leader Mary Jane Wallner said, ​“In the decades I’ve known Renny Cushing, I have been inspired by his incred­i­ble pas­sion for pub­lic ser­vice. A true pub­lic ser­vant, he ded­i­cat­ed his entire life to the bet­ter­ment of oth­ers. His spir­it will live on through the com­pas­sion­ate pol­i­cy he craft­ed to pro­tect all Granite Staters and the uncon­di­tion­al kind­ness he instilled in each one of us, his friends.” 

“Renny Cushing has always been an advo­cate and ally for young peo­ple and the BIPOC com­mu­ni­ty,” said House Democratic Floor Leader Rep. Manny Espitia. ​“He nev­er shied away from a fight and worked tire­less­ly for our most vul­ner­a­ble com­mu­ni­ties. I’m grate­ful to have been able to spend so much time with Renny and thank his fam­i­ly for shar­ing such an amaz­ing soul with the leg­is­la­ture. As he would always say to me, ​‘Siempe Pa’lante’ (always forward).”

Cushing’s work to abol­ish the death penal­ty was shaped by the mur­der of his father and his broth­er-in-law. He found­ed Murder Victims’ Families for Human Rights, trav­el­ing the coun­try to speak against the death penal­ty. ​“If we let those who kill turn us into killers, then evil tri­umphs and we all lose,” he said on March 7, 2019, when the death-penal­ty repeal bill passed the House, three years to the day before his death. ​“That does noth­ing to bring back our loved ones. All it does is widen the cir­cle of violence.” 

In his Discussions with DPIC inter­view, he said, ​“Being the sur­vivor of a homi­cide vic­tim has a pain for which there aren’t any words. … [But f]illing anoth­er cof­fin doesn’t do any­thing to bring our loved ones back, it just widens the cir­cle of pain. There’s a big dif­fer­ence between jus­tice and vengeance.”