two poorgradstudents

deathpenaltyinfo.org picks up the Union Leader’s article on the cost of Michael Addison’s capital murder case.

The Union Leader writes on the NH Senate’s vote against SB344. In it, Senator Joe Kenney (R-Wakefield), sponsor of the bill, calls NH’s capital murder laws arbitrary.

Sen. Joseph Kenney, R-Wakefield, sponsored the bill after the killings of three men during the robbery of a camping goods store in North Conway this year.
He said a kidnapper who kills his victim now can face the death penalty, but a serial killer with 30 victims would not.

“How is that justice?” he asked.

The Senate’s vote indicates an unwillingness to amend the state’s laws on the death penalty haphazardly, adding types of killing on a case-by-case basis.

Critics of the bill, SB 344, said its language is too vague to be certain that the state’s death penalty would continue to be invoked strictly, and on a limited basis.

Finally, slate.com’s Dahlia Lithwick writes on the slippery slope between public outrage and apathy at the Bush administration’s approval of torture.

Following their February 6th Editorial “Don’t expand capital punishment, abolish it,” the Concord Monitor made space for its readers to debate the death penalty.

By my count, on the 10th of February, three Letters to the Editors appeared in the Monitor.  Two, one by Gerri King and one by Arnie Alpert, sided with the editorial, citing cost, the non-existent deterrent effect, and mistakes as reasons to oppose the death penalty.  Shane Miller came out against the editorial, saying that the money spent on capital cases is money well spent, especially since those who aren’t executed can murder again while in prison.

On the 13th, Denis J. O’Connell Sr. expressed his support of the death penalty, saying that it could be effective and could deter crime, if used appropriately – that is, if the punishment was administered swiftly.  The next day, the Concord Monitor published a letter by Mel Curry in which Curry asks readers

So why shouldn’t the criminals spend the rest of their lives paying for the crimes they commit? The problem then becomes, who should pay for it? If someone killed your significant other, would you want to support that person financially?

Well, if capital punishment is abolished in New Hampshire, you will pay for it. Just imagine, you shared 25 years with the love of your life and a stranger killed him or her. The criminal is convicted, but we have no death penalty. So, now you have to pay to support the person who killed you wife or husband.

Given that the Monitor’s original editorial noted the expenses associated with death penalty cases, I’m not sure why they chose to publish this particular letter, since it implicitly misrepresent the financial costs of prosecuting and punishing murder cases.

“… Writing in response to Ed Koch’s argument in favor of the death penalty, Bruck prepared the following piece, which first appeared in the New Republic in 1985.”

On Monday, the Union Leader published “Legal Legend Heads to NH,” a profile of John “Jay” Brooks’ lawyer David I. Bruck. Bruck, who is also a law professor at Washington and Lee University School of Law, specializes in death penalty cases. The profile focuses on Brooks’ track record, especially his work in Susan Smith’s defense, and his soft spoken presentation. Despite the Union Leader’s editorial support of capital punishment, Russ Choma’s articles frames Bruck sympathetically.

Also on Monday, The Keene Sentinel ran an editorial against the use and expansion of the death penalty in New Hampshire. Specifically, the editorial alludes to “the frightful string of cases in other states where innocent people have been convicted,” as well as the high cost of death penalty cases.

from Heavy Sounds and Abstract Truth, a Chicago Tribune article on a death row exoneration.

Pass it on.

In 1939, the State of New Hampshire executed Howard Long for ‘molesting and fatally beating a 10-year-old boy.’ This was the last execution in New Hampshire. However, punishment by death remains in the State’s Criminal Code. In 2000, the NH House and Senate voted to abolish the death penalty. Following this, Governor Jeanne Shaheen, a Democrat, vetoed the bill and the House voted to sustain the veto.Representative Jim Splaine was one of the sponsor’s of the bill. Recently, he blogged on the bill, NJ’s abolition of capital punishment, and the presidential primaries.

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