House rejects bill to repeal death penalty

in Concord, the New Hampshire House soundly rejected a bill to repeal the death penalty.
The House voted 200-to-137 to kill the bill, which would have reduced capital murder crimes to 1st-degree murder with a mandatory punishment of life without parole.
The Legislature voted to repeal the death penalty in 2000, but then-Governor Jeanne Shaheen vetoed the bill.
New Hampshire last executed someone in 1939. No one is on death row and no capital murder trials are pending. Repeal supporters argued the risk of executing the innocent was too great to leave the law on the books. But death penalty supporters said some crimes are so heinous they deserve the ultimate punishment.