NH's only death row inmate loses appeal to state Supreme Court

The New Hampshire Supreme Court has rejected Michael Addison's petition to reexamine his death sentence following the state's repeal of the death penalty.

In a ruling Tuesday, the court dismissed the appeal from Addison, the state's only death row inmate.

The court said in its ruling that state law allows only one proportionality review as part of the appeal process and does not allow defendants to seek additional reviews years later. Addison's conviction and death sentence were already upheld on repeal and a proportionality review was conducted in 2015.

The court also said that the Legislature said when it repealed the death penalty that it would only apply to anyone convicted to capital murder "on or after the effective date" and not those convicted before it was repealed, including Addison.

"If the legislature intended to provide successive comparative proportionality reviews for defendants convicted of capital murder and sentenced to death prior to the effective date of the act repealing the death penalty, it could have included that in the legislation, but it did not," the court said in its ruling.

Addison was sentenced to death in 2008 for fatally shooting Manchester Police Officer Michael Briggs two years earlier as Briggs was trying to arrest him following a string of robberies and a gunfight. But his attorneys argued that the state should not be able to execute him after capital punishment was abolished by New Hampshire lawmakers in 2019. They wanted his sentence changed to life in prison.

The New Hampshire Supreme Court accepted Addison's petition last year and agreed to take another look at the case.

New Hampshire Gov. Kelly Ayotte, a former attorney general, was the lead prosecutor in the Addison case. She said last year that commuting his sentence would be a "grave injustice."

In a statement released Tuesday, Ayotte reiterated that she thinks Addison should face the death penalty.

"Addison’s sentence was handed down fairly and in accordance with the law by a jury of his peers, and today’s ruling by the New Hampshire Supreme Court is an important step toward ensuring justice for Officer Briggs, the Briggs family, and the men and women of the Manchester Police Department. Our law enforcement officers deserve to know that criminals who harm them will face the toughest penalties, and I thank the Department of Justice for their efforts to hold Addison accountable," she said.

New Hampshire hasn't executed anyone since 1939 and until Addison it hadn't sentenced anyone to death since 1959.

State lawmakers repealed the death penalty in 2019 by a 279-88 vote in the House and a 17-6 vote in the Senate. Then Gov. Chris Sununu vetoed the repeal, but his veto was overridden by the Senate.

New Hampshire’s death penalty applied in only seven scenarios: the killing of an on-duty law enforcement officer or judge, murder for hire, murder during a rape, certain drug offenses, or home invasion and murder by someone already serving a life sentence without parole.

Briggs' widow, Laura Briggs, spoke against repealing the death penalty in 2019, in part because her son was working in law enforcement. Mitchell Briggs now serves as the police chief in Grafton, New Hampshire.

The repeal did not apply retroactively to Addison, but his lawyers have argued that the appeal showed the state now considers the death penalty to be cruel and unusual punishment.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.