Within a month, New Hampshire's House of Representatives will vote for the second time in two years on a bill that would repeal the state's capital punishment law.
Rep. Jaqueline Pitts (D-Portsmouth), who is one of the seven co-sponsors of the bill, predicted that it would run into trouble when it reaches Gov. Jeanne Shaheen's desk -- if not before.
Last year, Shaheen vetoed a similar bill that aimed to repeal the state's capital murder law, and she has pledged to do the same if it passes the House and the Senate this time around. If that happens, both the House and Senate would need a two-thrids majority to override Shaheen's veto.
To some, New Hampshire's focus on repealing the death penalty, which has not been put to use since 1939, may not be the most important legislation on the list of issues that face the government.
But Pitts said the issue is far from moot.
She explained that she never used to have a strong opinion either way on the death penalty, but after hearing the arguments for both sides, she realized that "taking life under any circumstance is not right and a life for a life is not fair."
She also said that it is not the government's responsibility to get revenge or to decide who lives and who dies.
"I'm not in the vengeance business," she said.
As it stands, the New Hampshire capital murder statute is much more restrictive than similar policies in other states. It applies to those who knowingly kill people under the following conditions:
-- A police officer, judge or similar official acting in the line of duty or killed in retaliation.
-- During a kidnapping
-- By hiring another to commit murder
-- While serving a life prison term without parole
-- During a rape
-- During certain drug crimes.
No one is currently on death row in New Hampshire and the last person who was charged with capital murder was Gordon Perry in 1997. He pleaded guilty to first degree murder to the killing of an Epsom, N.H. police officer.
According to Shaheen's press secretary, Pamela Walsh, the governor "believes strongly that there are some murders so heinous that the death penalty is an appropriate punishment."
When giving examples of the type of crime that warrants death penalty, Shaheen and her backers have raised the Carl Drega murder rampage of 1997 -- when he killed four people, including two state troopers, before dying in a shoot-out with police.
Shaheen held in testimony before the House late last month that the law makes it "extraordinarily difficult" to apply the death penalty.
In his testimony before the House, state Attorney General Philip McLaughlin said the death penalty deters criminals from committing serious crimes. He said police officers -- those most protected by teh capital murder statute -- need to know that their work and their lives are valued by the society they protect.
Pitts acknowledged that the penalty is not used often -- but she said it is "unconscionable" to use the penalty as "a bargaining chip." She also said it was unfair that for killing a police officer, someone could get the death penalty, but if this same person killed an ordinary citizen, the maximum sentence would be life in prison.
Pitts is not alone in her criticism of New Hampshire's death penalty. Last month, the House of Representatives heard testimony opposing the penalty from a wide range of people.
Renny Cushing, who is executive director of the Murder Victims Families for Reconciliation testified that "A ritual killing by this state does nothing to honor the deaths of our loved ones."
Cushing's own father was killed by an off-duty policeman in Hampton in 1988.
The administrative director of MVFR, Liz Coleman, explained that the organization is a non-profit national group that is part of the movement to abolish capital punishment.
Bishop of Manchester John McCormack testified that killing a murderer does not restore the victim.
Emily Lesher '02, who is the legislative intern this term as the Diocese of Manchester, explained that the Catholic church opposes the death penalty.
"We believe in the sanctity of human life, and the death penalty itself is dehumanizing," she said. "It's saying that the person couldn't be remedied and it's saying that the state has the right to take the life of a person."
Lesher acknowledged the obvious -- that the death penalty does not get used with any frequency here in New Hampshire. But she said eliminating the possibility is an "issue of principle."
During the hearing, Rep. James Splaine (D-Portsmouth), the prime sponsor of the bill, said life without parole is as harsh a punishment as death.
"They go to sleep and they see bars; they wake up in the morning and they see bars; and they know they're in there forever," he said. "That is as good a deterrent as anything. Seventy years and they rot away and then they die."
New Hampshire is one of 38 states to have the death penalty on the books.
The minimum age to receive the death penalty in New Hampshire is at 17 years, and the state authorizes lethal injection or hanging if lethal injection cannot be given.
