"Daylong hearing set in death sentence appeal," is Lynne Tuohy's AP report, via the Boston Globe.
The state’s only death-row inmate will have his day in court — all day — when the New Hampshire Supreme Court hears arguments pertaining to his sentence.Michael Addison was sentenced to death for fatally shooting a 35-year-old Manchester police officer, Michael Briggs, in 2006, when Briggs tried to arrest him on robbery charges.
The justices in Addison’s case will be deliberating the death penalty for the first time in more than 50 years — deciding, among other things, whether Addison’s sentence is just or was a product of passion or prejudice.
The justices will hear arguments in the case beginning Wednesday morning, holding four blocks of hearings that are scheduled to end at 3 p.m.
Court observers say the daylong hearing on Addison’s conviction and death sentence is unprecedented. A typical hearing before the justices lasts half an hour.
"New Hampshire Supreme Court to hear convicted killer Addison's appeal this week," is Bill Smith's report for the New Hampshire Union Leader.
The state Supreme Court will hear oral arguments Wednesday in the appeal of the man sentenced to die for the 2006 murder of Manchester police officer Michael Briggs.
Defense attorneys have appealed condemned killer Michael Addison's conviction and the death sentence imposed by a Hillsborough County jury in 2008.
Addison was convicted of capital murder in the death of Briggs, who was gunned down in an alley while in pursuit of a suspect in 2006.
In an order handed down Nov. 2, the high court set aside a full day for hearing the 22 issues raised in the condemned man's appeal.
Addison's attorneys have raised the constitutionality of the state's death penalty as an issue in the case.
Several other questions of law have been raised on appeal. The justices are being asked to decide if the trial judge erred in not changing the location of the trial, and whether prosecutors were unfairly permitted to raise "passion, prejudice or other arbitrary factors" in arguments to the jury.
The Nashua Telegraph reports, "Death penalty opponents to hold vigils outside Addison’s Supreme Court hearings," by Joseph G. Cote.
While lawyers and justices parse complex legal concepts and jargon and a convicted cop killer waits to see if he will be executed, death penalty opponents will be thinking about the big picture later this week and protesting outside the state’s highest court.The New Hampshire Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty will hold silent vigils outside the New Hampshire Supreme Court before and after hearings on Michael Addison’s trial in the 2006 shooting death of Manchester Police Officer Michael Briggs.
The hearings, which will be held from 9 a.m.-3 p.m. Wednesday, could decide whether Addison will become the first person executed in New Hampshire in decades.
The coalition said death penalty opponents, including former law enforcement officers, church leaders and relatives of murder victims, will participate in the vigils from 7:30-9 a.m. and 2:45-4 p.m. at the 1 Charles Doe Drive courthouse.
Earlier coverage of Michael Addison's case begins at the link.
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