The New Hampshire Commission to Study the Death Penalty held a hear­ing on September 16 at Keene State College, invit­ing the pub­lic to share their views on whether the state should repeal the death penal­ty. Among those tes­ti­fy­ing were a retired police chief, a for­mer pris­on­er, and the moth­er of a mur­der vic­tim, all of whom spoke against cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment. Margaret Hawthorn, whose daugh­ter was mur­dered last April, told the Commission that she did not want her daughter’s killer to be put to death. ​“The best pos­si­ble out­come for me would be for there to be no more death. One was enough.” Mark Edgington, who served time in a Florida prison, said his time as an inmate changed him from a sup­port­er to an oppo­nent of cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment. Edgington said that in his expe­ri­ence the death penal­ty is not an effec­tive deter­rent: ​“Having spent 9 years in prison, let me tell you, those men don’t care about your deter­rents.” Former Marlborough police chief Raymont Dodge agreed with Edgington, say­ing that peo­ple who com­mit crimes do not weigh the pros and cons before­hand. Dodge also cit­ed wrong­ful con­vic­tions as a seri­ous con­cern: ​“We can release an inno­cent per­son from jail. We can­not release an inno­cent per­son from the grave.” The Commission is sched­uled to release its report to the leg­is­la­ture in December.

(S. Trefethen, ​“Punishment debates: State death penal­ty com­mis­sion hears from pub­lic,” Keene Sentinel, September 18, 2010). See Studies, Innocence and Victims.

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