N.H. revives death-penalty issue
Officer's killing spurs a debate
Two days after a decorated New Hampshire police officer was fatally shot, battle lines are being drawn over what could be the state's first death-penalty case in almost a decade.
New Hampshire Attorney General Kelly A. Ayotte got a boost yesterday in her effort to pursue capital punishment charges against the alleged killer of a Manchester police officer, Michael L. Briggs, when some legislators earmarked $420,000 to mount the case.
The decision was made as autopsy results were released, indicating that Briggs had died from a single gunshot wound to the head and the manner of death was a homicide, the attorney general's office said.
But opponents of capital punishment vowed to fight any attempt to execute Michael Addison, who was arrested in Dorchester, if he is convicted of capital murder in the slaying of the 35-year-old officer.
``We're against killing," said Arnie Alpert, a member of the New Hampshire Coalition Against the Death Penalty, who said the focus of attention should be Briggs's grieving family, not plans to seek the death penalty. ``We don't think people should kill police officers, and we don't believe the state should kill people."
New Hampshire last executed someone in 1939. The last death penalty case, which stemmed from the 1997 killing of an Epsom police officer, ended in a plea arrangement that enabled the defendant to avoid execution. No one is now on Death Row.
A Northeastern University poll in 2000 indicated that 55 percent of residents preferred a sentence of life without parole for the most serious offenses, while 35 percent wanted to retain the death penalty.
The Legislature voted that year to repeal the death penalty, but then-Governor Jeanne Shaheen vetoed the bill, and lawmakers fell 34 votes short in the House of overriding the veto.
Yesterday, the 10 members of the Joint Legislative Fiscal Committee seemed behind Ayotte's plans to seek a capital murder charge against the 26-year-old Addison. They voted unanimously to set aside the $420,000 so prosecutors can hire two lawyers, a paralegal, and a part-time secretary, and to pay for experts, equipment, and supplies.
The allocation is $70,000 more than the attorney general's entire litigation budget for the fiscal year that ends June 30, 2007, according to Fred King, the Republican who heads the committee.
And he said the outlay yesterday was ``just the first payment" to help bankroll what he expected would be a long, costly prosecution.
``We're not a state known for being spendthrifts, but we're certainly going to pay for this," he said.
Governor John Lynch and the five-member executive council must approve the expenditure. Lynch said Tuesday that Briggs's murder ``strikes at the very heart and fabric of our society," and that the killer should get the most severe punishment available.
New Hampshire can impose the death penalty in limited cases: the murder of a police officer or judge, murder for hire, and murder during a kidnapping, rape, or some drug crimes. State law establishes lethal injection as the means of execution.
Ayotte, who is best known for sending two teenage killers to prison for murdering a pair of Dartmouth College professors in January 2001, praised legislators for moving so swiftly.
But the expenditure drew criticism from death penalty opponents as well as Addison's court-appointed lawyer, John Hayes. Hayes is representing Addison in Massachusetts on a charge of being a fugitive from justice, and in Addison's effort to fight rendition to New Hampshire.
``Wouldn't it be better if we spent that money on real issues and real concerns and not blown that money on a death penalty case?" said Hayes, who cited education and crime prevention as smarter priorities.
Addison has refused to return voluntarily to New Hampshire and is being held on $2 million bail pending a Nov. 10 rendition hearing in Boston.
A man who picked up the phone at Briggs's house in Concord, N.H., yesterday declined to comment. Briggs, a Marine Corps veteran who had been on the Manchester force for five years and who won awards for his service, was married and the father of two.
Briggs's funeral is set for Saturday. Police said that a procession and service open to the public will be held Saturday morning.
Gordon Perry was the last person charged with capital murder in New Hampshire for the 1997 slaying of Epsom officer Jeremy Charron. Briggs, then a part-time Epsom officer, was a pallbearer. Perry avoided death by pleading guilty to first-degree murder. He received life without parole.
The Associated Press contributed to this report. Jonathan Saltzman can be reached at jsaltzman@globe.com. 