N.H. bill to repeal death penalty fails

With the slaying of a Manchester police officer casting a shadow over the debate, New Hampshire legislators rejected a proposal yesterday to repeal the state's death penalty.

The 185-to-173 vote marked the fourth time in seven years that lawmakers have clashed over whether to ban executions.

This time, with an officer dead and a suspect possibly facing execution, the debate proceeded with an air of urgency. Michael Addison, 27, could face a death sentence if convicted in the killing of Manchester police Officer Michael Briggs, 35, who was gunned down while responding to a domestic violence call on Oct. 16. Addison was captured later that day in Boston. It is New Hampshire's first capital prosecution in a decade.

New Hampshire's top prosecutor, Attorney General Kelly A. Ayotte, said at a legislative hearing this month that repealing capital punishment so soon after Briggs's death would be an "insult to law enforcement officers." Governor John Lynch, a Democrat, vowed to veto the measure if it passed.

State Representative James R. Splaine, the Portsmouth Democrat who sponsored the repeal bill, acknowledged that Briggs's slaying made the legislative climate hostile .

He and other death penalty opponents argued yesterday that the statute is immoral, and that life imprisonment is punishment enough.

"Each day waking up, he or she sees the bars of the cell, hears the sounds of the cell block, smells the odors of jail, every day until death," Splaine said.

But Representative Laura Pantelakos, a Portsmouth Democrat, was unconvinced.

"The convicted murderer should suffer the same fate as the victim," she said.

"Michael Briggs had no jury trial," said Representative Stanley E. Stevens, a Wolfeboro Republican. "He was shot in the head."

Ayotte said shortly after the killing that she would seek the death penalty. It will be the first capital case in New Hampshire since 1997, when a man faced execution in the slaying of a police officer but later negotiated a deal to serve life in prison without parole.

There is no one on New Hampshire's death row, and no one has been executed there since 1939.

Deputy Attorney General Bud Fitch applauded the House vote yesterday and reiterated Ayotte's opposition to the repeal effort, saying the statute deters anyone who might target a police officer.

Lawmakers opposed to the death penalty said that the justice system is not infallible, and that innocent people could be put to death, but Fitch said New Hampshire's statute is carefully tailored to prevent such mistakes.

According to the statute, a jury must make two unanimous votes to send someone to death row: one to find guilt beyond a reasonable doubt, and a second to find at least two aggravating circumstances, including that the defendant killed intentionally.

The Legislature voted to repeal the statute in 2000, but the move was nullified by Governor Jeanne Shaheen's veto. Since then, repeal efforts have been defeated twice.

Material from the Associated Press was used in this report. Raja Mishra can be reached at rmishra@globe.com.