NH Court upholds death sentence

On Thursday the New Hampshire Supreme Court upheld the death sentence for Michael Addison, the only inmate on death row in New Hampshire.

Addison was convicted for fatally shooting police officer Michael Briggs in 2006.

The Justices reviewed similar cases in other states and concluded that the death penalty was neither "excessive nor disproportionate."

The defense asked the Court to review roughly 350 cases, but the Court significantly narrowed that pool according to various variables, such as the presence of aggravating factors and a separate sentencing phase.

Buzz Scherr, a professor at the University of NH School of Law, told NHPR, "Given the small universe of cases that the court decided to look at, it is almost inevitable that there is going to be a finding of proportionality. If they had used a broader number of cases, it would have been more likely that this would be disproportionate."

"Our function is to identify an aberrant death sentence, not to search for proof that a defendant’s sentence is perfectly symmetrical with the penalty imposed in all other similar cases," wrote the Justices.

Addison can still appeal to federal courts.