USA | Hearings continue on bills that would reinstate death penalty in New Hampshire

CONCORD, N.H. — Opponents of the death penalty turned out in big numbers in Concord again Thursday to speak against legislation to bring capital punishment back to New Hampshire.

The opposition testifying Thursday included a former death row inmate.

"I was convicted in 1985, wrongfully convicted in 1985 of first-degree murder, which I didn't commit," said former death row inmate Paul Hildwin.

Hildwin spent three decades on death row in Florida before DNA evidence proved his innocence.

"We fought the state prosecutors for seven years to submit the DNA profile in the CODIS (Combined DNA Index System) database to determine the source of the DNA," he said. "In 2010, the Florida Supreme Court finally ordered them to run the DNA database, and it showed that the DNA matched the victim's boyfriend, not me."

Hildwin told his story before the House Criminal Justice Committee as it opened hearings on several bills to reinstate the death penalty in New Hampshire.

Advocates from the Innocence Project highlighted Hildwin's case as a reason for the Granite State to not return to capital punishment.

"We urge you to reject these bills that would reinstate the death penalty," said Winnie Ye of the Innocence Project. "The risk of executing an innocent person is too great and therefore unacceptable."

Supporters of the death penalty said those issues can be overcome.

"Yes, there are probably still problems that need to be addressed with the death penalty, I recognize that, but when there's a will, there's a way, and the first thing we have to do is have the will at least to reinstate the death penalty," said state Rep. Seth King, R-Whitefield.

The debate over the bills will eventually head to the House floor, and it remains to be seen whether the Republican majority can unite in favor of any of them. The death penalty is an issue with moral and religious considerations that can cut across party lines.

"The public execution of the founder of our faith, if it teaches us anything, it's that human cruelty is not healed or effectively countered by further violence," said Bishop Robert Hirschfeld of the Episcopal Diocese of New Hampshire.

Source: wmur.com, Staff, January 15, 2026

"One is absolutely sickened, not by the crimes that the wicked have committed,
but by the punishments that the good have inflicted."

— Oscar Wilde

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