CONTACT: Jeanne Hruska, ACLU-NH Policy Director, 307-272-8727, jeanne@aclu-nh.org
CONCORD, NH – President Trump traveled to Manchester to state that New Hampshire ought to use the death penalty more often in order to combat the opioid epidemic. This call for an expanded use of the death penalty comes just days after the New Hampshire Senate voted 14-10 in support of repealing the death penalty.
Statement by Devon Chaffee, executive director of ACLU-NH: “The ACLU-NH finds the President’s suggestion that we are wasting our time unless we are executing drug dealers irresponsible and reprehensible. What the President failed to mention is that the death penalty does not act as a deterrent, does not reduce crime, and certainly does not help any of the New Hampshire communities reeling from addiction and the opioid crisis.
The President clearly does not know New Hampshire or he might have known that the Senate, in an incredible show of bipartisanship, voted in support of repealing the death penalty in our state just last week.”