USA - New Hampshire. ACLU Files Amicus Brief for Sole Death Row Prisoner: Michael Addison

November 17, 2025:

November 17, 2025 - NEW HAMPSHIRE. ACLU Files Amicus Brief for New Hampshire’s Sole Death Row Prisoner, Raising Concerns About Racial Disparities and Disproportionate Sentencing

On October 30, 2025, the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) of New Hampshire and the ACLU Capital Punishment Project jointly filed a 27-page amicus brief on behalf of Michael Addison, an African American man and the only remaining person under a death sentence in New Hampshire. Mr. Addison was convicted in 2008 of capital murder for the fatal shooting of a white Manchester police officer.

The filing cites findings from the Capital Jury Project (CJP), which show that death-qualified” jurors are more punitive, more supportive of the death penalty, and more likely to view evidence as aggravating rather than mitigating. This supports the ACLU’s argument that death qualification during jury selection in Mr. Addison’s case created bias, violated the state’s constitution, and contributed to unequal and racially skewed case outcomes.

The filing urges the New Hampshire Supreme Court to consider evidence of racial bias and disproportionality in the state’s application of the death penalty. Central to the brief is the state’s 2019 repeal of capital punishment — legislation that passed with broad bipartisan support but was not retroactive. The repeal measure cleared both chambers of the legislature by more than a 2/3 margin and became law only after lawmakers overrode the governor’s veto. At the time, State Senator Melanie Levesque described the death penalty as “archaic, costly, discriminatory, and final.”

Mr. Addison remains on death row because the repeal applies only to future cases. His attorneys argue that executing Mr. Addison now would be “excessive or disproportionate to the penalty imposed in similar cases” because no one convicted of the same crime today could receive a death sentence. The ACLU notes no other state has executed a person after repealing capital punishment and that allowing Mr. Addison’s execution would make New Hampshire the first to do so.

“Jurors are more than 4 times more likely to impose a death sentence if the defendant is black.”

A 2014 University of Washington study that analyzed 330 aggravated murder cases reviewed by the Washington State Supreme Court between December 1981 and May 31, 2014.

The ACLU further contends that the state’s proportionality review process, established under the 1973 State v. Dixon decision to prevent “freakish, wanton, or racially biased” sentences, has failed in practice to address racial disparities. Mr. Addison was sentenced to death for a single gunshot that penetrated a police officer’s helmet during an arrest attempt, leading to the officer’s death the next day. The jury did not find that Mr. Addison “purposely killed” the officer but concluded he “purposely inflicted serious bodily injury which resulted in death,” a finding sufficient for a capital conviction under state law at the time. By contrast, John Brooks, a wealthy white businessman, was convicted that same year of orchestrating and participating in a contract killing, a premeditated act, yet received a life sentence. The brief notes that the 2 cases, tried within months of each other, underscore concerns about race and socioeconomic bias in capital sentencing.

The New Hampshire Supreme Court has twice reviewed and rejected Mr. Addison’s proportionality challenges, in 2013 and 2015, concluding that his sentence was “neither excessive nor disproportionate.” The state attorney general’s office has not yet filed a response to the new brief.

New Hampshire has not carried out an execution since 1939. However, debate over the future of capital punishment in the state has resurfaced recently. Several Republican legislators have pre-filed bills for the 2026 session seeking to reinstate the death penalty. Governor Kelly Ayotte, who served as attorney general during Mr. Addison’s prosecution, has expressed her support for its return.

New Hampshire also does not currently have a death chamber. In 2010, the Department of Corrections estimated that building an execution chamber would cost about $1.7 million, but the legislature has not authorized funds to build it.

https://deathpenaltyinfo.org/aclu-files-amicus-brief-for-new-hampshires-sole-death-row-detenuto-raising-concerns-about-racial-disparities-and-disproportionate-sentencing