The state Senate Thursday passed a bill that expands the state’s death penalty to include murders committed during home invasions.
On a one-sided voice vote, the Senate approved House Bill 147, which would take effect July 1.
The bill was changed from the version the House passed in March, after it was found to be worded in a way that could bring it into play killings that take place long after a burglary might have occurred.
Gov. John Lynch has stated support for expanding the capital punishment law, but has been concerned about the bill’s wording.
The House has to approve the Senate version before it can go to Lynch’s desk for signature. The bill should proceed smoothly, since its prime sponsor, Speaker of the House William O’Brien, was part of the revision effort.
Sen. James Luther, R-Hollis, urged the Senate to pass the bill, but its fate was not in doubt.
“Our homes are sanctuaries and they merit the protection that this bill provides,” Luther said. The Senate Judiciary Committee voted 3-1 to recommend passage.
The bill is a response to the home invasion murder of Kimberly Cates of Mont Vernon in October 2009. 4 teen stabbed and hacked her to death in her bed, and also stabbed her daughter who was left for dead, but survived.
O’Brien first tried to add home invasion to capital murder laws in January 2010. His effort was rejected in December 2009 by Democratic House leaders as coming too late to appear as a bill for the 2010 session. An identical bill was set for hearings in the Senate. That bill failed, in part because a special commission reviewing the death penalty was due to report late in the year. The commission voted 12-10 to recommend no changes in the law, Sen. Amanda Merrill, D-Durham, told the Senate Thursday.
Hearings on the HB 147 brought support from many corners, including David Cates, widower of Kimberly. But a number of other families victimized by murder opposed it, saying expanding the death penalty would only inflict suffering on more families - those of executed killers.
One of the few who spoke against the bill in the Senate Thursday was minority leader Sen. Sylvia Larsen, D-Concord. She said the bill “will not prevent the acts that we are reacting to. I do not believe this will prevent future events such as these."
Sen. James Forsythe, R-Strafford, said he opposes the death penalty, but voted for the bill anyway. He said he feels the death penalty is not applied uniformly, but he would not use that issue to block this bill.
In its original form, the bill allowed the death penalty to apply in murders that occur during actual invasions or, “as a consequence of having been in another’s residence.” The Attorney General’s Office said that phrase would open the door to capital punishment too widely.
State law now allows the death penalty to be sought in murders of police officers, judges and other law enforcement; during rapes, kidnappings or drug deals; murders for hire, and those committed by someone serving a life-without-parole prison sentence.
Source: Union Leader, June 4, 2011
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