Overview

• In a one-page order issued Monday, the full court accepted Addison's petition and set briefing without scheduling oral argument.
• Addison, the state's only death row inmate, was convicted of killing Manchester Officer Michael Briggs and was sentenced to death years before New Hampshire prospectively repealed capital punishment in 2019.
• His attorneys argue that executing him now would be an extreme outlier and say it could be the first U.S. execution by a jurisdiction that has abolished the death penalty.
• Gov. Kelly Ayotte, who prosecuted the case as attorney general, opposes any commutation and calls changing the sentence a grave injustice to Briggs' family and law enforcement.
• Advocates point to Connecticut's post-abolition resentencings as a guide, and note New Hampshire has not carried out an execution since 1939.