"We support the repeal of death penalty in N.H.," is the editorial published by the SeaCoast Online media group, publishers of the Portsmouth News, Exeter News-Leader, and the Hampton News.
Hampton state Rep. Renny Cushing, whose father was murdered in 1988, officially launched a campaign Thursday to repeal the death penalty in New Hampshire.
Cushing was joined in Concord by the Catholic and Episcopal bishops, law enforcement representatives and crime victim advocates. We join them in voicing our support of death penalty repeal.
In our view, the death penalty is simply not justice. While we understand and respect the arguments in favor of putting to death those convicted of the worst capital crimes, we're convinced by the evidence that the damage capital punishment inflicts on society far outweighs the good.
We agree with Judge Walter Murphy, who served in 2009 as chairman of the Commission to Study the Death Penalty in New Hampshire.
"There is no assurance that the death penalty does what its advocates claim is its purpose; nor is there any reason to believe it is necessary for public safety," Murphy wrote in the commission's final report. "The alternative, that is, life without the possibility of parole, offers the same protection without the attendant risks of mistakes and without the vast expense both monetary and otherwise."
"N.H. group announces effort to repeal death penalty," is the AP coverage by Lynne Tuohy. It's via the Boston Globe.
With a state Supreme Court ruling on the appeal of the state's only death row inmate expected soon, a coalition against the death penalty launched its campaign Thursday to end capital punishment next year.Rep. Renny Cushing, a Hampton Democrat whose father was murdered in 1988, is once again leading legislative efforts against the death penalty.
"I think New Hampshire has come to the conclusion that New Hampshire can live without the death penalty," Cushing said during a press conference by the New Hampshire Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty in the Legislative Office Building lobby, which was packed with supporters.
Walter Murphy, former chief judge of the New Hampshire Superior Court, said the state is touted as the safest in the country. "Does anyone really think the death penalty is the reason for that when the death penalty hasn't been utilized since 1939?" he asked.
SeaCoast Online also posts the news report, "Father's murder inspired legislator's crusade," by Nick B. Reid.
Shortly after Renny Cushing's father was murdered in 1988, a family friend came up to him and said, "Geez, I really hope the killer gets the death penalty.""I didn't know how to respond," said Cushing, a Democratic state representative from Hampton. "I realized the person had presumed I would change my position on the death penalty because my father was murdered."
He said there exists a "widespread societal assumption" that all family members of murder victims want the death penalty for the killer. But for him, even as his father opened his front door one day to be met with "two shotgun blasts that rang out and turned his chest into hamburger right in front of my mother," Cushing maintained his opposition to capital punishment.
If he hadn't, he said, it wouldn't have just been his father who was taken from him, but his values as well. He didn't immediately become an activist — he said he preferred not to talk about the incident — but his position imposed upon him an obligation to speak out, "lest my silence on the issue be seen as me agreeing with the presumption" that he would want the death penalty.
"Group renews push to repeal N.H. death penalty," is the Foster's Daily Democrat report by Connie Eppich.
The New Hampshire Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty wants to put itself out of business.
Coalition board member and House Rep. Robert “Renny” Cushing, D-Hampton, led a news conference in Concord announcing the coalition’s renewed effort to pass a bill repealing the death penalty in New Hampshire. Cushing, whose father was murdered in 1988, said that support for the abolition of capital punishment is cutting across classic political divides.
Speaking on behalf of the bill were Roman Catholic Bishop Peter A. Libasci of the Manchester Diocese, Episcopal Bishop A. Robert Hirschfeld (Diocese of New Hampshire), retired Chief Justice of the New Hampshire Superior Court Walter L. Murphy, and Ray Dodge, retired police chief for the town of Marlborough.
Reasons given for abolishing the death penalty included sanctity of life, its high cost, lack of crime deterrence and the possibility of executing an innocent person.
Earlier coverage from New Hampshire begins at the link.
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