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State & Federal

New Hampshire

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


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…

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News

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,”…

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News

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…

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News

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…

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News

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…

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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 may receive a non-bind­ing rec­om­men­da­tion of clemen­cy from a board or advisory Group
  • Governor: Kelly Ayotte
Upcoming Executions

Upcoming Executions

Information about scheduled executions around the country

Innocence

Innocence

For every 8.2 peo­ple exe­cut­ed in the Unit­ed States in the mod­ern era of the death penal­ty, one per­son on death row has been exon­er­at­ed.

State-By-State

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States With and Without the Death Penalty

DPI Fact Sheet

DPI Fact Sheet

PDF handout with facts about the Death Penalty

More Information


Innocence Database

Execution Database

Death Penalty Census Database

Death Penalty Information Center
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