2001 SESSION

01-0011

04/09

HOUSE BILL 171-FN

COMMITTEE: Criminal Justice and Public Safety

ANALYSIS

This bill abolishes the death penalty.

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Explanation: Matter added to current law appears in bold italics.

Matter removed from current law appears [in brackets and struckthrough.]

Matter which is either (a) all new or (b) repealed and reenacted appears in regular type.

01-0011

04/09

STATE OF NEW HAMPSHIRE

In the Year of Our Lord Two Thousand One

Be it Enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives in General Court convened:

1 First Degree Murder. Amend RSA 630:1-a to read as follows:

630:1-a First Degree Murder.

I. A person is guilty of murder in the first degree if [he] such person:

(a) Purposely causes the death of another; or

(b) Knowingly causes the death of:

(1) Another before, after, while engaged in the commission of, or while attempting to commit felonious sexual assault as defined in RSA 632-A:3;

(2) Another before, after, while engaged in the commission of, or while attempting to commit robbery or burglary while armed with a deadly weapon, the death being caused by the use of such weapon;

(3) Another in perpetrating or attempting to perpetrate arson as defined in RSA 634:1, I, II, or III;

(4) The president or president-elect or vice-president or vice-president-elect of the United States, the governor or governor-elect of New Hampshire or any state or any member or member-elect of the congress of the United States, or any candidate for such office after such candidate has been nominated at his party's primary, when such killing is motivated by knowledge of the foregoing capacity of the victim[.];

(5) A law enforcement officer or a judicial officer acting in the line of duty or when the death is caused as a consequence of or in retaliation for such person's actions in the line of duty;

(6) Another before, after, while engaged in the commission of, or while attempting to commit kidnapping as that offense is defined in RSA 633:1;

(7) Another by criminally soliciting a person to cause said death or after having been criminally solicited by another for his or her personal pecuniary gain;

(8) Another before, after, while engaged in the commission of, or while attempting to commit aggravated felonious sexual assault as defined in RSA 632-A:2;

(9) Another before, after, while engaged in the commission of, or while attempting to commit an offense punishable under RSA 318-B:26, I(a) or (b).

II. [For the purpose of RSA 630:1-a, I(a),] In this section:

(a) "Purposely" [shall mean] means that the actor's conscious object is the death of another, and that his or her act or acts in furtherance of that object were deliberate and premeditated.

(b) "Law enforcement officer" means a sheriff or deputy sheriff of any county, a state police officer, a constable or police officer of any city or town, an official or employee of any prison, jail or corrections institution, a probation-parole officer, or a conservation officer.

(c) "Judicial officer" means a judge of a district, probate, superior or supreme court; an attorney employed by the department of justice or a municipal prosecutor's office; or a county attorney; or an attorney employed by the county attorney.

III. As used in this section and RSA 630:1-b, 630:2, 630:3, and 630:4, the meaning of "another" does not include a fetus.

IV. A person convicted of a murder in the first degree shall be sentenced to life imprisonment and shall not be eligible for parole at any time.

2 Repeal. The following are repealed:

I. RSA 630:1, relative to capital murder.

II. RSA 630:5, relative to sentencing procedures and the death penalty.

II. RSA 630:6, relative to places of and witnesses to executions.

3 Effective Date. This act shall take effect January 1, 2002.

LBAO

01-0011

1/5/01

HB 171-FN - FISCAL NOTE

FISCAL IMPACT: