Lawyers for New Hampshire's only death row inmate say the state's highest court must review a broad universe of similar crimes to determine if the convict's sentence was fair.
Michael Addison was sentenced to die for killing Manchester police officer Michael Briggs in 2006.
In state Supreme Court arguments Thursday, defense lawyer David Rothstein said the court should consider 366 other police killings to decide if the death sentence was applied fairly to Addison. Rothstein says 58 percent of those cases ended in death sentences.
Senior Assistant Attorney General Jeffery Strelzin argued the cases to be compared should come from states with similar capital punishment statutes. He says only 12 cases fit the Addison case. In the state's analysis, 67 percent of those cases ended in death sentences.
Convicted Cop Killer's Death Sentence Review
The New Hampshire Supreme Court is set to hear arguments Thursday morning in the final direct appeal of Michael Addison's sentence
Copyright AP - Associated Press
