As late as Wednesday evening, New Hampshire Sen. Russell Prescott says he still hadn’t made up his mind whether to support a measure coming up for a vote the next day that would do away with capital punishment in the state.
The Republican from the town of Kingston says he finally made a “gut level” decision to oppose the bill, which failed by one vote on Thursday.
“I just wanted to be certain that I listened to all sides, and it was a very difficult decision,” he told Law Blog.
The Democratic-led House voted to repeal the state’s death penalty law by a wide margin in March and with Gov. Maggie Hassan saying she would sign the measure, the outcome hinged on the Senate vote.
It narrowly missed passage in the Republican-led chamber with a 12-12 vote. Mr. Prescott was among 11 Republicans to vote against it, along with one Democrat. Ten Democrats and two Republicans voted for it.
Explaining his vote, Mr. Prescott said that he ultimately concluded that he would rather let jurors in capital punishment trials determine the fate of convicted murderers eligible for the death penalty, rather than eliminating the punishment of death as an option altogether.
“When a person goes against the value of societies, there are consequences,” he said. “I felt that jurors could make a proper decision” about whether to impose the toughest of consequences, he said.Read the full story HERE.
If you like what you see, please "Like" us on Facebook either here or here. Please follow us on Twitter here.
No comments:
Post a Comment