ALERT: Join vigil during death penalty vote Apr. 17
Senators vote Thursday morning, April 17th on HB 1170 to abolish the death penalty, a bill that sailed through the House by 225-104. Supporters of repeal will circle the State House (8:30a.m.) during the Senate floor session holding candles to let lawmakers know a lot of people care about the issue. Nobody tell how the showdown vote will go, because some senators are still undecided. (We'll start by meeting at 8:30AM on the State House lawn to form a human... ring around the State House. Once the session begins at 10AM, we'll move to the Senate Chambers in the State House. The Senate will be discussing a number of bills before ours, but we anticipate HB1170 will be taken up before they break for lunch.)
The bill came out of Senate Judiciary Committee last week with 3-2 support, including committee member and bill co-sponsor Sam Cataldo (R-Farmington). Sen. David Boutin (R-Hooksett) told colleagues he was unsure how he would vote until the last minute, having read and listened with an open mind to messages from dozens of people on both sides. He voted no.
Sen. Sharon Carson (R-Londonderry) opposed the bill and warned it would allow convicted murderer Michael Addison to escape execution. He is on death row for killing Manchester police officer Michael Briggs. Carson explained the bill seems to repeal the means for carrying out an execution. Bill supporters testified at the public hearing this month that HB 1170 would not effectively commute the sentence to life without parole.
Cataldo had prepared a committee amendment to spell out that intent, but Carson and Boutin blocked it. Sen. Donna Soucy (D-Manchester) missed the struggle over the amendment because of a family emergency. The original vote on the bill was 2-2 without her, but the full committee reconsidered it a few days later to let Soucy be counted. She voted yes.
Members of the public are welcome to join the Vigil and should come early to get instructions. Here’s a link to contact information on individual senators. They would probably like to hear from you. http://www.gencourt.state.nh.us/Senate/members/senate_roster.aspx
For additional information please call By Chris Dornin, founder, CCJR, 620-7946
To assist you in making your arguments, here are some quotes from the recent public hearing and from an ecumenical prayer vigil against the death penalty last month.
VOICES AGAINST THE DEATH PENALTY
“Lord, make us instruments of your peace. Where there is hatred, let us sow love: Where there is injury, pardon.”
- St. Francis of Assisi
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“Ending the death penalty would be one important step away from a culture of death and toward building a culture of life.”
- U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops
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“We pray for people on death row, that their lives, each of infinite worth, may be spared, that those who are innocent may be freed, and those who are guilty may acknowledge their fault and seek reconciliation and newness of life.”
-Rev. Gordon Crouch Pastor, First Congregational Church, Hopkinton, NH
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“Knowing that innocent people have been executed, and that DNA evidence has freed others before execution, is enough for us to abhor the death penalty, irrespective of any arguments to support it.”
- John Broderick and Joseph Nadeau, former N.H. Supreme Court Justices
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“I cannot with moral certainty find an instance, other than in self-defense, where the state-sanctioned taking of the breath of God is justified.”
-Robert Azzi, Portsmouth writer and Muslim
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“After Cain killed Abel, God forbade anyone to touch Cain.”
- Jonathan Hopkins Pastor, Concordia Lutheran Church - President, NH Council of Churches
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“The suffering of victims of violence and their families is profound, and each of these people deserves to know that the perpetrators of such violence are held accountable. Yet we have seen too often that our capital punishment system, created and imposed by humans, reflects human imperfection.”
- Rabbi Robin Nafshi, Temple Beth Jacob
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“Abolishing the death penalty will not compromise public safety, but it may replace rage with reason, retribution with self-respect, and enrich the character of our people as a whole.”
- John Broderick and Joseph Nadeau, former N.H. Supreme Court Justices
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“The death penalty is a relic of the earliest days of penology when slavery, branding, and other corporal punishments were commonplace. It has no place in a civilized society.”
- John-Michael Dumais, executive director - NH Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty
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“Until my sister’s murder I thought people who kill other people should have to die themselves. And then someone killed my sister and her two beautiful babies. My heart broke. Killing is senseless. All killing needs to end.”
-Nancy Filiault, NH resident
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“Those who would murder should spend the rest of their despicable lives, 23 hours every day, in a six by eight foot concrete cell. This repeal is not about sympathy for murderers. No, this is about a reasonable, rational, and fiscally responsible approach to administering justice in New Hampshire.”
- Raymond Dodge, a retired NH police chief
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Michael Addison would be the first person executed in NH since 1939. His prosecution had cost the state $2.3 million by September 2013, and his public defenders had spent $2.6 million. It would cost $1.4 million to imprison him for 40 years.
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“The millions of dollars that we spend to execute a person could be used to rebuild our mental health system. This is where the true need is to protect our officers on the streets (addicts, unstable mental health patients) do very desperate things to survive.”
- Richard O’Leary, retired Deputy Chief, Manchester Police
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“It is unconscionable to put victims’ families through the torture of years and years of litigation so that the death penalty can be carried out.”
- Walter Murphy, retired NH Superior Court chief justice
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“I do not want to perpetuate this cycle of violence in my name.”
- Rev. Michael Leuchtenberger, Concord Unitarian Universalist Church, NH