It is no secret to anyone who knows me that I am an ardent supporter of the death penalty. As liberal as I may be on other topics, I firmly believe that there are some people who commit crimes so heinous, so atrocious, and so evil that they forfeit their right to life.
So I was very disappointed when, on May 30, 2019, the New Hampshire State Senate voted to override Governor Chris Sununu's veto of HB 455, a death penalty repeal bill that had passed the state legislature earlier this year.
Last year, an identical bill, SB 593, had also been vetoed by Gov. Sununu, but an override had been unsuccessful. That was, however, not the case this year.
When HB 455 was first introduced in January, it was expected to become law. It had veto-proof support from both parties in both chambers of the state legislature. But, nevertheless, Governor Chris Sununu vowed to veto it. And I commend him for taking a stand for what is morally right.
New Hampshire has not carried out an execution since 1939. The state has no death chamber or execution protocol. But the state's death row is not empty. Currently, one man, Michael Addison, awaits execution.
Addison's crime was evil by any standard. In October of 2006, Addison had committed a series of robberies with several accomplices in Manchester, New Hampshire. While fleeing from the scene of a robbery on October 16th, 2006, Addison was pursued by Manchester police officer Michael Leland Briggs. When Briggs ordered Addison to halt, Addison turned around and fired a shot at the officer, hitting him in the face and killing the married father of two instantly.
Ironically, Briggs had actually saved Addison's life three years earlier, administering first-aid treatment to him after Addison was shot in a gang-related attack. But Addison repaid the officer's kindness with a bullet to the face.
Addison fled the scene as two other officers returned fire, and he was later arrested in Boston.
In 2008, Addison was convicted of murder in New Hampshire state court, and was sentenced to death by lethal injection. It was the first death sentence handed down in New Hampshire in nearly 50 years.
Since then, Addison has remained on death row for his crime, but anti-death-penalty activists have consistently fought to have his sentence reduced to life. They scream about "racism", because Addison, who is black, was sentenced to death for killing a white police officer. They cry about "retributive justice", claiming that executing Addison is just as bad as his killing of a policeman. They always parrot fallacies, recite false equivalencies, and sometimes flat-out lie about the facts of the death penalty. The fact is, Addison is not on death row for being black; he is on death row for murdering a cop. It doesn't matter if Addison was black, white, red, yellow, green, blue, pink, or whatever. He still committed a heinous crime and he deserves to be executed for it.
Luckily, New Hampshire's abolition bill is not retroactive. Addison will remain on death row for the time being. But this is by no means a done deal. Connecticut similarly passed a non-retroactive abolition bill in 2012, but the bill was made retroactive in 2015, commuting the death sentences of all 12 inmates on the state's death row. So, with New Hampshire's abolition, it is unlikely that Addison will ever be executed, and very likely that his sentence will be commuted, either by the courts or by a successive governor.
Michael Briggs' widow actually testified against the repeal bill when it was being heard in the NH Senate. She cried, sobbed, and pleaded for the legislature to preserve the ultimate punishment. She begged them to administer proper justice to the man who murdered her husband, left her two sons fatherless, and left their family in ruins. But the legislature ignored her. They voted to deprive the Briggs Family of their last hope of justice.
Instead of siding with a murdered policeman's grieving widow, the legislature decided to side with his murderer.
Even though his efforts were unsuccessful, I thank Governor Chris Sununu from the bottom of my heart for his resilience and his courage in standing up for the families of murder victims in New Hampshire.
Even though he knew his veto would be overridden by the legislature, Sununu vetoed this obscenity of a bill anyway, writing "God bless Officer Briggs and his family" on the veto form.
Chris Sununu and I have our disagreements on some things, but he has earned my undying respect and gratitude for the courage and fortitude he showed when he vetoed that despicable bill.
Hopefully, by some miracle, the people of New Hampshire will make their voices heard and overturn this disgusting decision by the NH legislature. Nebraska did so in 2016, and the circumstances in New Hampshire are very similar.
The people need to make their voices heard. Governor Sununu wanted to start a conversation, and he did so. Now the people need to do their part. Stand up for the family of Michael Briggs. Stand up for justice and for what is morally right. The majority of New Hampshire voters support the death penalty. Now they need to let their representatives know that they mean business.
The death penalty is a just punishment for certain heinous and depraved crimes, and it must always remain a legal option.
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