A New Hampshire jury imposed the death penalty last month for the first time since 1959, sparking a now ongoing debate about the racial and ethical implications of state executions. Michael Addison was sentenced to death on Dec. 18 after he was convicted of the October 2006 murder of Manchester police officer Michael Briggs.
Addison has filed an appeal in state Supreme Court to overturn convictions for crimes he allegedly committed a week prior to Briggs' murder, including armed robbery. The appeal's outcome may affect whether the state will actually move forward with the execution, as jurors during Addison's murder trial were asked to consider these other crimes when deciding Addison's penalty, the Concord Monitor reported.
New Hampshire has not executed anyone since 1939. Two people sentenced to death in 1959 had their sentences commuted to life in prison.
Addison will likely not be executed for another 10 to 12 years if his appeal fails because it has been so long since the state last sentenced someone to death, Josh Rubenstein, northeast regional director of Amnesty International, said.
New Hampshire remains divided on the issue of capital punishment. While many state officials, including Democratic New Hampshire Governor John Lynch, have openly supported the sentence, the court's decision has been met with outcry from anti-death penalty advocacy groups, who have organized several protests at the New Hampshire State House within the past month.
"[The sentencing] will prompt debate about whether or not there should be a death penalty in the public arena and legislation," State Sen. Matthew Houde '91, D-Plainfield, said. "It's an important discussion to have in the state of New Hampshire and in the U.S."
Some court observers have drawn a comparison between Addison's case and the recent murder trial of businessman John Brooks. While Addison, who is black and has few financial resources, was sentenced to death, Brooks, who is white and wealthy, was sentenced to life in prison after being convicted of murder-for-hire last October, according to WBZ, a local CBS affiliate, leading to accusations of prejudice and racism in the courtroom.
Manchester Police detective Nick Willard, who investigated both cases, said the two were fundamentally different. He cited Addison's history of violence, which he said included three separate arrests for violent crime, as a factor in his sentencing.
"There really are no parallels between the Brooks and Addison cases," Willard said. "Conducting these investigations, what I've learned is that a lot of people thought the death penalty was inappropriate [for Addison] due to what they saw in the media."
Anti-death penalty advocates argue that the sentencing is a step in the wrong direction for New Hampshire.
"I found it shocking and deeply disturbing," said Arnie Alpert, New Hampshire program coordinator for the American Friends Service Committee, a Quaker organization that works with the National Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty. "The state is now in a position in the long process of premeditated killing."
Many state legislators quickly rallied to support the court's decision following the sentencing, state officials said.
"The governor supports our death penalty statute," Colin Manning, Lynch's press secretary, said. "He feels the murder of a police officer is a serious crime. He agrees with the verdict."
Willard, who said he was speaking on behalf of many members of his department, explained that most police officers agree with the court's decision to enforce capital punishment in this case. State law allows juries to give individuals convicted of killing a police officer the death penalty.
"It's a just punishment, given the crime," Willard said. "I think there's some validation for Michael Briggs giving his life as a police officer. It gives the officers some security knowing that their lives, and the things they do, matter."
Although he supports the decision, Willard said the ruling to enforce the death penalty is not cause for celebration.
"The sentence means that another man's life will be taken -- that of Michael Addison," he said. "It's a very somber thing."
Addison's sentence has also raised significant logistical questions because of the amount of time since the state's last execution.
"As far as I know, New Hampshire doesn't even have a chamber in which to execute someone," Rubenstein said.
There is also a chance that the execution may never occur, according to Dartmouth government professor Linda Fowler.
"We adopted [the death penalty] and then never applied it," Fowler said. "My guess is that this really is an exceptional case, and I'm not really sure the state will go through with it. These law and order appeals are more potent in a state with high crime rates, and New Hampshire isn't a state with high crime rates."
Three of Addison's public defenders declined to comment for this article, saying the fourth public defender, Richard Guerriero, was handling communication with the media. Guerriero did not return requests for comment by press time.
The New Hampshire legislature voted in 2000 to abolish the death penalty, but the bill was vetoed by then-Governor Jeanne Shaheen, D-N.H., according to The Boston Globe.
Shaheen, now the junior senator from New Hampshire, was unavailable for comment by press time.
