Zachary Harmon | Oppose HB1730

My name is Rev. Zachary Harmon, I serve St. Christopher’s Episcopal Church in Hampstead, I live in Goffstown, New Hampshire. I am here today to testify against reinstitution the death penalty in New Hampshire. Specifically I am opposed to HB 1749, HB1413 & HB1737 & HB 1730. As a faith leader, I believe the death penalty goes against core Judeo-Christian Principles. The 10 Commandments state: Thou Shalt not Kill. When confronted with the death penalty, Jesus Christ said “Let the one who is without sin throw the first stone.” In Genesis in the Bible, we hear that all people are made in God’s image- that each person has intrinsic worth and value. Following that in Genesis, God punished Cain -the first murderer in the Bible, but God did not give him the death penalty. Let us not turn the state of New Hampshire into an institution that acts against these fundamental values. The Death Penalty is irreversible. If a wrong judgment is made or if the bias of a judge or jury impeded the true justice of a verdict, there is no way to take back the death penalty. There is no way to give someone back their life. (Examples Robert Johnson in Illinois 2025, Gary Washington in Maryland 2026 - 30 years in prison wrongfully). Perhaps most famously, and going back to faith, Jesus Christ is someone who experienced the death penalty wrongfully given by the state. There is no way to take back the death penalty if later evidence reveals it was given wrongfully. The Death Penalty also tears apart the fabric of our societies, towns and families. Every person is someone’s son, daughter, mother, father, brother, cousin, friend. All too often the perpetrator of a crime comes from the victim’s own family and friends. Very often the death penalty only further traumatizes and harms those already harmed. It only further traumatizes the people of New Hampshire. The death penalty also makes death and violence part of the state apparatus and only further normalizes violence in our society. How can we be in favor of such a thing? Furthermore, sometimes there is this sense or idea that the death penalty or some kind of bloody revenge have been parts of justice and human civilization from the dawn of time, but this is not true. In Aeschylus’ Greek drama the Oresteia, from 5th Century Athens, a foundational theme is that blood and revenge should not rule the day, but that justice and a holistic society should be the guiding principals of state and society. Likewise, in the Ancient Irish legal code of the Brehons which lasted until the 1500s, little room was made for the death penalty and viewed largely as a failure of justice., as it contributed little to society in contrast to other forms of justice that sought to restore and compensate the victims of a crime. Honorable Representatives, I urge you to uphold a good and ordered society in New Hampshire and to keep the recklessness of the death penalty out of our beloved state. Thank you for your time.