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State & Federal

New Hampshire

News & Developments


News

Mar 09, 2022

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.

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Jul 03, 2019

New Podcast: New Hampshire Rep. Renny Cushing on Empowering Crime Survivors and Repealing the Death Penalty

“Being the sur­vivor of a homi­cide vic­tim has a pain for which there aren’t any words,” says New Hampshire Representative Renny Cushing (pic­tured), in the lat­est episode of the Death Penalty Information Center pod­cast, Discussions with DPIC. 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,” he says.

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May 30, 2019

New Hampshire Becomes 21st State to Abolish Death Penalty

Overriding a veto by Governor Chris Sununu, the New Hampshire leg­is­la­ture has repealed the state’s death-penal­ty statute. With a 16 – 8 super­ma­jor­i­ty, the May 30, 2019 vote of the New Hampshire Senate equaled the two-thirds required to over­ride a guber­na­to­r­i­al veto. One week ear­li­er, the state House had vot­ed to over­ride with a 247 – 123 super­ma­jor­i­ty. The over­ride vote made New Hampshire the 21st state to abol­ish cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment and the ninth to do so in the last 15 years. Half of all U.S. states, includ­ing every north­east­ern state, now either have…

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May 03, 2019

New Hampshire Governor Again Vetoes Bill to Repeal State’s Death Penalty

For the sec­ond time in as many years, New Hampshire Governor Chris Sununu (pic­tured, left) has vetoed a bill to repeal the state’s death penal­ty. Sununu’s action on May 3, 2019 sets the stage for an antic­i­pat­ed attempt lat­er in the leg­isla­tive ses­sion to over­ride the Governor’s veto. A two-thirds vote in each house is required to override.

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Apr 12, 2019

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…

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Mar 08, 2019

Veto-Proof Majority of New Hampshire House Votes to Repeal State’s Death Penalty

By an over­whelm­ing 279 – 88 mar­gin, a veto-proof major­i­ty of the New Hampshire House of Representatives vot­ed on March 7, 2019 to repeal the state’s death penal­ty. Demonstrating strong bipar­ti­san sup­port that gar­nered the back­ing of 56 more leg­is­la­tors than an iden­ti­cal repeal bill received in April 2018, the vote end­ed spec­u­la­tion as to how the recon­sti­tut­ed cham­ber would respond to repeal. 93 of the 400 rep­re­sen­ta­tives in the state house who par­tic­i­pat­ed in the vote in 2018 did not seek reelec­tion, and more than one-third of the rep­re­sen­ta­tives had never…

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Feb 19, 2019

Death-Penalty Repeal Efforts Across U.S. Spurred by Growing Conservative Support

Bills to repeal and replace the death penal­ty with non-cap­i­tal pun­ish­ments have gained new trac­tion across the United States in 2019 as a result of oppo­si­tion to the death penal­ty among ide­o­log­i­cal­ly con­ser­v­a­tive leg­is­la­tors. That move­ment – buoyed by fis­cal and pro-life con­ser­v­a­tives, con­ser­v­a­tive law-reform advo­cates, and the deep­en­ing involve­ment of the Catholic Church in death-penal­ty abo­li­tion – has led to unprece­dent­ed suc­cess­es in numer­ous hous­es of state leg­is­la­tures and moved repeal efforts clos­er to fruition in a num­ber of deeply Republican states. In 2019, con­ser­v­a­tive leg­is­la­tors are lead­ing the…

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Dec 26, 2018

After Mid-Term Elections, Legislators Poised to Renew Efforts at Death-Penalty Abolition in 2019

Empowered by the results of the November 2018 mid-term elec­tions, leg­is­la­tures in at least four states are poised to renew efforts to repeal their states’ death-penal­ty statutes or dras­ti­cal­ly reduce the cir­cum­stances in which cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment is avail­able. State leg­isla­tive and guber­na­to­r­i­al elec­tions in Colorado, Nevada, New Hampshire, and Oregon have rede­fined the local polit­i­cal land­scape in 2019 in ways that death-penal­ty abo­li­tion­ists say have made those bills more like­ly to suc­ceed. Colorado and Oregon already have mora­to­ria on the death penal­ty, but leg­is­la­tors in both states are expect­ed to…

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Nov 07, 2018

2018 Midterm Elections: Governors in Moratorium States Re-Elected, Controversial California D.A. Ousted

The results of the November 6, 2018 mid-term elec­tions reflect­ed America’s deeply divid­ed views on cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment, as vot­ers elect­ed gov­er­nors who pledged not to resume exe­cu­tions in the three states with death-penal­ty mora­to­ri­ums, defeat­ed an incum­bent who tried to bring back cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment in a non-death-penal­ty state (click on graph­ic to enlarge), and re-elect­ed gov­er­nors who had vetoed leg­is­la­tion abol­ish­ing cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment in two oth­er states. Continuing a nation­al trend, vot­ers in Orange County, California oust­ed their scan­dal-plagued top pros­e­cu­tor, mark­ing the ninth time since 2015 that local voters…

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Jun 22, 2018

Governor Vetoes New Hampshire Death-Penalty Repeal Bill

New Hampshire Governor Christopher Sununu (pic­tured) has vetoed a bill that would have abol­ished the state’s death penal­ty. Surrounded by law enforce­ment offi­cers as he vetoed the bill on June 21, 2018, Sununu said, “[w]hile I very much respect the argu­ments made by pro­po­nents of this bill, I stand with crime vic­tims, mem­bers of the law enforce­ment com­mu­ni­ty and advo­cates for jus­tice in oppos­ing it. New Hampshire does not take the death penal­ty light­ly and we only use it spar­ing­ly.” New Hampshire has only one per­son on death row, Michael…

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Apr 30, 2018

New Hampshire Legislature Passes Death-Penalty Repeal Bill, But More Votes Needed to Override Threatened Veto

The New Hampshire state leg­is­la­ture has vot­ed to repeal the state’s death penal­ty, but pro­po­nents of the bill cur­rent­ly lack the votes nec­es­sary to over­come a threat­ened guber­na­to­r­i­al veto. On April 26, the New Hampshire House of Representatives vot­ed 223 – 116 to pass Senate Bill 593, with 145 Democrats, 77 Republicans, and one Libertarian sup­port­ing repeal. The state sen­ate pre­vi­ous­ly approved the mea­sure 14 – 10 on March 15, with sup­port from eight Democrats and six Republicans.

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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.

Old Man of the Mountain

Resources

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

New Hampshire Execution Totals Since 1976

View Information by State

Additional Information


  • Death Penalty: No
  • Number of Executions Since 1976: 0
  • Number of Executions Before 1976 (may include federal and military executions): 24
  • Current Death Row Population: 1
  • Women on Death Row: 0
  • Number of Innocent People Freed From Death Row: 0
  • Number of Clemencies Granted: 0
  • Date of Reinstatement (following Furman v. Georgia): January 1, 1991
  • Date of Abolition: May 30, 2019
  • Location of Death Row/Executions: New Hampshire's one death row prisoner is housed at the New Hampshire State Prison for Men in Concord. New Hampshire does not have a death chamber.
  • Capital: Concord
  • Region: Northeast
  • Population: 1,377,529*
  • Murder Rate (per 100,000 population): 9.25
  • Is Life Without Parole an Option?: Yes
  • Method of Execution: Lethal Injection (Hanging if lethal injection is not possible)
  • Clemency Process: Governor has sole authority to grant clemency
  • Governor: Chris Sununu

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