NH Supreme Court Rules “Disproportionality” of Death Penalty for Only Man on Death Row Cannot be Reviewed

CONCORD, N.H. – The New Hampshire Supreme Court ruled today that the “disproportionality” of the death penalty cannot be reviewed for Michael Addison, a Black man convicted in 2008 of killing a white police officer. Addison is the only person on the state’s death row and was sentenced to die prior to New Hampshire’s repeal of the death penalty in 2019. Today’s decision is not the last word on the legality of this execution, including whether it is constitutional in light of the legislature’s repeal of the death penalty.

“Today is a sad day that could lead New Hampshire down the path of becoming the first and only state to execute someone under a repealed death penalty statute,” said Gilles Bissonnette, Legal Director of the ACLU of New Hampshire. “New Hampshire repealed the death penalty in 2019 because it is inhumane, unjust, racist, and error-prone—things that are all still true today. The penalty of death cannot be proportionate in this case when someone convicted of an identical crime today would not receive the death penalty. While today's decision ignores this reality, the fight against the death penalty in this case will continue.”

The ACLU and several death penalty scholars submitted a friend-of-the-court brief in this case in October 2025, urging the New Hampshire Supreme Court to disallow this execution from ever taking place and highlighting that New Hampshire could become the first and only state to execute someone under a repealed death penalty statute.

"It is extremely disappointing that the Court did not take this opportunity to address the disproportionate and inequitable death sentence imposed on Mr. Addison, the only person on New Hampshire’s death row and a Black man,” said Megan Byrne, senior staff attorney at the ACLU’s Capital Punishment Project. “New Hampshire repealed the death penalty in 2019 because it recognized that the punishment is unjust, inhumane, and infected with racial bias. Mr. Addison's case puts those very problems on full display. New Hampshire should not move backward by defending a sentence under a law it has already rejected."

The brief also asked the Court to consider the ways that racism contributed to Addison’s death sentence, saying, “this Court should consider the legion of social science research explaining the ways that race likely contributed to the death sentence of a poor, Black man who did not ‘purposefully kill’ the victim, particularly when the sentence came in the same year that a rich, white man was given a life sentence after purposefully bludgeoning someone to death with a sledgehammer alongside two others he had hired to kill the victim.”

The decision today comes amid renewed national scrutiny of the death penalty following Tennessee’s botched execution of Christa Pike last week. The horrific execution attempt was Tennessee’s second botched execution in less than 6 months.