Death Penalty Repeal Back in House

State lawmakers on Wednesday will again debate a proposed repeal of the death penalty.

The House in March passed a bill 225-104 to repeal capital punishment, but the Senate voted 12-12 on it and tabled it. The latest effort for death penalty foes is an amendment to a bill that essentially mirrors the earlier legislation.

Rep. Renny Cushing, D-Hampton, and Rep. John Cebrowski, R-Bedford, are sponsors of the amendment to Senate Bill 202. 

The amendment changes the penalty for capital murder from execution by lethal injection or hanging to life imprisonment without eligibility for parole.

The NH Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty is rallying behind the bill, saying a botched execution underscores the need for a repeal.

"The botched execution of Clayton Lockett recently in Oklahoma is yet another piece of evidence that the death penalty needs to be put behind us," Barbara Keshen, chairwoman of NH Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty, said in a press release. "We cannot have the death penalty in a nation that bars cruel and unusual punishment as one of its fundamental legal principles."

The coalition notes the amendment comes on the heels of a report that New Hampshire has no way to execute inmates, as well as a study finding that more than 4 percent of those sentenced to death from 1973 to 2004 were innocent.

Cushing, a long-time advocate for repeal and whose father was murdered, said the time is right for New Hampshire to modernize its statutes.

"The events in Oklahoma warrant giving legislators another opportunity this year to get New Hampshire out of the execution business," Cushing said via the NH Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty.