New Hampshire U.S. Senator Kelly Ayotte says she’s pleased with the state Supreme Court's ruling this week to uphold the conviction of Michael Addison
Addison was found guilty and sentenced to death for shooting and killing Manchester police officer Michael Briggs in 2006.
As attorney general, Kelly Ayotte was the lead prosecutor in the Addison case and she featured her role in her 2010 campaign for U.S. Senate.
Ayotte says she expects the court will uphold Addison’s death sentence.
“There’s one more set of review; the proportionality review that’s required by law. And so certainly, I believe that will be upheld, that the death conviction will be upheld as a result of that review.”
In that review, the court will consider whether sentencing Addison to death for killing a police officer is proportional to sentences handed out in similar cases.
Ayotte says she opposes repealing New Hampshire’s death penalty, a proposal that state lawmakers will likely consider next year.
“Particularly in cases for our police officers, it is important that in that narrow set of cases, that the death penalty is one of the penalties the attorney general can consider depending on the case.”
If the sentence stands, Addison would be the first person executed in New Hampshire since 1939.
