Today's Nashua Telegraph reports, "Death penalty opponents hopeful new crop of lawmakers will support abolishing law." It's written by Joseph G. Cote.
If anyone was likely to be in favor of capital punishment, it would be Renny Cushing.Cushing’s father, Robert Cushing Sr., was murdered in 1988. And last year, Cushing’s brother-in-law, Stephen McRedmond, was killed in Nashville, Tenn.
Despite these tragedies, Cushing, a Hampton Democrat who won back a state representative seat in last week’s election, is and always has been in favor of abolishing the death penalty in New Hampshire, which he believes is an inevitability.
“Everyone is moving away from the death penalty. It’s clear New Hampshire isn’t in love with the death penalty. We haven’t executed anyone since 1939,” he said. “I don’t think we want to have (laws) that mirror China and Russia.”
Even as convicted cop killer Michael Addison awaits the Supreme Court’s ruling in his death penalty case, those in favor of abolishing executions say there may be a window to do so with the election of Democratic Gov. Maggie Hassan.
And:
Democrats gained ground in the Statehouse after the Nov. 6 election, but it’s Hassan moving into the corner office that puts death penalty opponents closer to their goal. The two previous Democratic governors, John Lynch and now-Sen. Jeanne Shaheen, vetoed bills that would have repealed the law.
A bill to abolish to death penalty passed the House in 2009 by a vote of 193-174, but never made it into law.
Earlier coverage from New Hampshire begins at the link.
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