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New Hampshire, which has executed no one for 80 years and only one sentenced to death, became Thursday the last state to abolish the death penalty when its Senate voted to cancel the Governor's right of veto.
The Senate vote comes a week after the 400-member House voted, by the narrowest possible margin, to override the Republican government's veto, Chris Sununu, on a bill to repeal the death penalty.
"It is now up to us to put an end to this archaic, costly, discriminatory and definitive practice," said Senator Melanie Levesque of D-Brookline.
With the action of New Hampshire, 21 states have abolished or canceled the death penalty, according to the information center on the death penalty. Of the 29 states that allow the death penalty, governors have imposed moratoriums on the death penalty in four of them.
The death penalty in New Hampshire is only applied in seven scenarios: murder of a police officer or a practicing judge, murder for hire, murder during a rape, certain misdemeanors related to drugs, or home invasion and murder committed by someone already serving a life sentence without the possibility of parole.
The state has not executed anyone since 1939, and the repealing bill would not apply retroactively to Michael Addison, who killed Manchester officer Michael. Briggs, and is the only inmate sentenced to death. But proponents of the death penalty argued that the courts would interpret it differently, giving Addison a chance to go to jail for life.
"If you think you're going through this today and Mr. Addison is still going to be on death row, you're confused," said Senator Sharon Carson, R-Londonderry. "Mr. Addison's sentence will be converted to life imprisonment."
Carson argued that New Hampshire had a narrow law and careful deliberation process to ensure that innocent people are not executed.
"This is not Louisiana in the 1920s when Old Sparky was shipped in a flat-bottomed truck and driven from prison to jail, where people were executed.We are not those people," he said. she said. "It does not happen here in New Hampshire."
The Senate vote, 16-8, was exactly the two-thirds majority needed to override the veto. Twelve Democrats and four Republicans voted in favor of the death penalty, while six Republicans and two Democrats voted in favor of keeping it. Among these was Senator Lou D & # 39; Allesandro, D-Manchester, representing the district in which the Briggs officer had been killed. He urged his colleagues to remember the law enforcement officers who risk their lives every day.
"I can not abandon these people," he said. "These people are here for us, they are there for us and I strongly believe that we have to support them."
Patrick Cheetham, former president of the New Hampshire Police Association, said he was frustrated with the result. He added that the repeal efforts were largely fueled by out-of-state interest groups, which mistakenly described the state as having applied the death penalty. unfairly. And he said that the association would have opposed the repeal even if there was no one sentenced to death for the murder of a police officer.
"If a criminal thinks twice, once, and saves the life of a police officer, we think the death penalty should stay," he said.
The bill was sponsored by Rep. Renny Cushing, a Hampton Democrat whose father was murdered in 1988. He first called on the Legislative Assembly to abolish capital punishment there 21 years ago.
"I think it is important that the voices of family members who oppose the death penalty be heard, that the police recognize that the death penalty is not working in terms of public security, and that state citizens know the death penalty is an odious practice that has been heard today by the legislature, "he said.
Sununu, who vetoed the repeal bill surrounded by police at a community center named after Briggs, said Thursday that he was incredibly disappointed with the vote.
"I have always stood alongside law enforcement, families of victims of crime and advocates of justice to oppose the repeal of the death penalty. because it's the right thing to do, "he said in a statement.
However, Senator Bob Giuda, a former FBI agent, R-Warren, said that he greatly respected the forces of order, but that the death penalty was contrary to his anti-abortion principles. He called the execution execution "appalling process" and urged his colleagues to "move our civilization" beyond.
"I think we are better than that," he said. "I chose to move our state to abolish the death penalty."
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Kathy McCormack, an Associated Press reporter, contributed to this story.
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