New Hampshire Court to Decide if the Death Penalty is Unconstitutional

Michael K. “Stix” Addison shot and killed  New Hampshire officer Michael Briggs at point blank range. There is no grey area here, he is guilty. Officer Briggs was pursuing him following a shot fired complaint during a domestic dispute. When officer Briggs caught him he was shot in the head and died the next day. Now Addison’s attorney is arguing that the death penalty is unconstitutional.

 The state should follow Massachusetts’ lead and strike down the death penalty as unconstitutional, lawyers representing a man accused of killing a Manchester police officer said in a court motion.

The death penalty violates protections against “cruel or unusual punishments,” offends contemporary standards of decency and tends to be disproportionately used against minorities and the poor, attorneys Richard C. Guerriero, Donna Brown and David Rothstein asserted.

I cringe when I see the words- follow Massachusetts lead- we have done that far to much here in New Hampshire for my liking. Then of course the race card is played. It must be nice to have a built in excuse for anything that goes wrong in your life. It can’t be the perpetrators fault, he had a bad childhood, or it’s too tough out there for minorities. Give me a break.

But he goes on to say:

“There is no right more valuable than the right to life,” Addison’s lawyers argued in a motion filed in Hillsborough County Superior Court this week.

Did he just say right to life? I think he did. This can’t sit well with the pro-death, I mean pro-choice crowd, can it? So, let me get this straight. Officer Briggs right to life was denied by a killer who then pleads that his right to life is the most important right of all. Meanwhile in an unrelated case, or in a way it is related, pre-born babies don’t have the right to life. Either you are pro-life or you are not pro-life, you can’t have it both ways for your convenience.

His attorneys also noted the steady retreat from use of the death penalty both in other states and abroad. Thirteen states either declared the death penalty unconstitutional, imposed moratoriums on executions or halted executions since 2000, they said. There also have been significant declines in the number of death sentences and executions in that time, the attorneys added.

After reading the above statement doesn’t it make you wonder that since there has been a retreat from the death penalty, and moratoriums on the death penalty that violent crime has increased, that it could be directly related? The death penalty is a deterrent, like it or not. If you don’t believe it’s a deterrent, then you have to at least admit that the person who receives the death penalty will no longer be able to commit a violent crime again. Even if that is all it accomplishes it’s a success in my opinion.

People need to be held accountable for their actions. This is one of the biggest problems facing our country, accountability. Everyone seems to be given an excuse for their behavior that lets them believe their behavior is not their fault.

It’s time for people to start paying the  price for their actions, and to be held acountable.

You can read the whole story here.