Supreme Court to hear appeal of death sentence for state’s only death row inmate
By Arielle Mitropoulos, Maria Wilson
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CONCORD, New Hampshire (WMUR) — The only man on New Hampshire’s death row is getting another chance to plead his case.
In an order issued Monday, the New Hampshire Supreme Court agreed to hear an appeal for Michael Addison, who was convicted of killing Manchester police Officer Michael Briggs. Briggs was shot to death in 2006.
Addison’s lawyers argue that, since the death penalty was abolished, his sentence should be commuted.
“It is simply unjust to execute one person in a state where the death penalty has been repealed,” said Jonathan Cohen, counsel for Addison.
Addison was found guilty of capital murder in 2008 and sentenced to death. The death penalty was abolished in New Hampshire in 2019, more than a decade after his conviction.
“It’s not something that’s going to have this kind of echo effect, but nevertheless, this is a very weighty question,” Daniel Pi, a University of New Hampshire Franklin Pierce School of Law professor, said.
Gov. Kelly Ayotte, who prosecuted the case while serving as attorney general, said changing Addison’s sentence would be a “grave injustice” to Briggs.
“Addison, a career criminal, murdered Manchester Police Officer Michael Briggs in cold blood, and he should face the death sentence imposed by a jury of his peers and upheld by the New Hampshire Supreme Court. Commuting his sentence would be a grave injustice and an insult to Officer Briggs’ family and law enforcement,” Ayotte said in a statement.
Addison’s lawyers said the death penalty goes against the state’s contemporary values.
“Mr. Addison’s execution will take place while literally no other person, regardless of their crime or background, would ever be eligible for execution in New Hampshire,” Cohen said. “In the wake of New Hampshire’s prospective repeal of the death penalty, no death sentence can stand.”
Addison’s lawyers told News 9 that he would be the only person in the United States executed after the death penalty was abolished in his jurisdiction. New Hampshire has not executed anyone since 1939.
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