A New Hampshire House committee recommended the full legislature kill several bills that would reinstate and expand the use of the death penalty in the state on Wednesday.
Following lengthy public hearings last month, the House Committee on Criminal Justice and Public Safety voted unanimously against the return of capital punishment, which lawmakers repealed in 2019.
Before Wednesday, committee members spanning the political spectrum said they saw no good reason to reverse course on the death penalty, let alone expand its application to cases of second degree murder or sex crimes against children.
“We’ve seen our government at different levels become more contentious and fractious,” said Rep. Terry Roy, the Deerfield Republican who leads the committee. “In my mind, in the state of this county, I don’t think we want to empower our government with the ability to kill its own citizens.”
“I have a moral objection to it, I have a fiscal objection to it, and when you look at the data it doesn't do anything to deter crime,” said Rep. Alissandra Murray of Manchester, a Democrat.
Rep. Mark Proulx, a Republican from Manchester, said when a member of his family was murdered, he felt torn over whether justice should entail executing the perpetrator in return. But Proulx said he was persuaded to oppose the death penalty by public testimony, including from others whose loved ones were murdered.
“I was really sitting on the fence but listening to all the evidence really swayed me,” Proulx said.
New Hampshire hasn’t executed an inmate since 1939. Lawmakers repealed the death penalty in 2019, overriding a veto by then-Gov. Chris Sununu. At the time, New Hampshire was among a number of states that outlawed the practice or limited its use.
The repeal of the death penalty in New Hampshire came at a time when several other state and federal courts were limiting the scope for capital punishment. Between 2015 and 2025, five states repealed their capital punishment laws. But according to the National Council of State Legislatures, seven states have since expanded their use of capital punishment.
Arkansas, Tennessee and Idaho all passed laws allowing for the death penalty in some cases of child rape. Florida, meanwhile, passed five statutes to expand use of the death penalty, including for some human trafficking offenses, the killing of the head of state or governor, and murder committed by an immigrant who does not have legal status. Florida also passed new policies that limit post-conviction appeal rights.
President Donald Trump supports the death penalty. So too does Gov. Kelly Ayotte. As Attorney General, Ayotte led the state’s prosecution of Michael Addison in the 2006 murder of Manchester police officer Michael Briggs. Addison is the state’s lone death row inmate. His case is on appeal.
Addison's lawyers have argued that the state’s repeal of the death penalty in 2019 should warrant commuting his sentence to life in prison.
Ayotte meanwhile, deferred weighing in on any specific bill to reinstate or expand capital punishment in New Hampshire, but she’s long been clear about wanting it back.
"I would like to see the death penalty restored,” Ayotte told reporters in October.
Her office didn’t respond to a request for comment about Wednesday’s committee’s votes rejecting capital punishment legislation.
The bills are expected to be put to vote by the full House later this month.
