As a New Hampshire resident, I urge you to oppose all efforts to reinstate the death penalty in New Hampshire.

In 2019, New Hampshire outlawed the death penalty because it is cruel, ineffective, and unpopular among Granite Staters — and now is no different.

The death penalty is expensive to taxpayers: Death penalty prosecutions cost significantly more than non-death-penalty murder cases, to the tune of millions and millions of dollars. They are longer, require two trials instead of one, and result in higher state and local government expenses. Taxpayers bear virtually all of these costs.

The death penalty is incredibly error-prone: When a horrible crime occurs in a community, prosecutors face enormous pressure to convict. Too often, this results in mistakes and shortcuts that lead to wrongful convictions. No punishment is more final than execution—and no system is more prone to irreversible error. Over 190 people nationwide have been exonerated from death row since 1973.

The death penalty does not deter violent crime: there is no evidence to support that the death penalty deters people from committing violent crimes.

As your constituent, I don’t want to see this violent, senseless, and cruel policy return to our state. I ask you to please oppose all efforts that would attempt to bring this error-prone, archaic, and cruel practice back to New Hampshire.

Sincerely,