NEW HAMPSHIRE – The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) of New Hampshire, along with the ACLU Capital Punishment Project and leading death penalty scholars, has expanded its legal effort to block the execution of Michael Addison, filing a detailed 27-page amicus brief on Oct. 30, 2025. The filing argues that executing Addison — the only person under a death sentence in New Hampshire — would be racially discriminatory, legally disproportionate, and unprecedented in the United States.
Addison, an African American man, was convicted in 2008 for the fatal shooting of a white Manchester police officer. The brief notes that while the jury convicted him of capital murder, it found he did not “purposely kill” the officer, but instead “purposely inflicted serious bodily injury which resulted in death.” The ACLU argues this distinction matters because death sentences are typically reserved for intentional, premeditated killings — a standard the jury did not find in Addison’s case.
The brief raises concerns about racial bias in the jury process. Research from the Capital Jury Project shows that “death-qualified jurors are more punitive, more supportive of the death penalty, and more likely to view evidence as aggravating rather than mitigating.” The ACLU argues this may have influenced Addison’s sentence, creating an unfair and racially skewed outcome.
Addison remains on death row even though New Hampshire repealed the death penalty in 2019. The repeal, passed with bipartisan supermajorities, applies only to future cases. The ACLU argues that executing Addison anyway would violate the state’s contemporary public values, noting that the Legislature’s repeal reflected a categorical rejection of capital punishment and was part of a national trend.
His attorneys contend that executing him now would be “excessive or disproportionate” because no one convicted of the same crime today could receive a death sentence. The brief further argues that proportionality review — a legal safeguard designed to prevent arbitrary or biased outcomes — failed Addison and should be reconsidered in light of the legal change and newly recognized evidence of racial disparities.
The ACLU also points to disparities in sentencing. Addison was sentenced to death for a single gunshot that killed a police officer. In contrast, John Brooks, a wealthy white businessman convicted the same year of planning and participating in a contract killing, received life in prison. The stark difference, the filing argues, demonstrates the deep influence of race and socioeconomic status in capital sentencing.
The brief critiques New Hampshire’s proportionality review process, originally established in State v. Dixon to prevent “freakish, wanton, or racially biased” executions. It argues the process failed, leaving Addison subject to a punishment the state has since renounced.
According to the ACLU, the New Hampshire Supreme Court previously reviewed Addison’s case in 2013 and 2015 and upheld the sentence as “neither excessive nor disproportionate.” The state attorney general’s office has not yet responded to the new filing.
The brief also emphasizes that no state in American history has executed a person after repealing capital punishment. The filing notes that executing Addison would make New Hampshire the first — and an extreme outlier nationally and globally. The state does not currently have a death chamber, and 2010 estimates suggested building one would cost $1.7 million.
The ACLU argues that racial bias, disproportionate sentencing, bipartisan legislative repeal, and national legal history converge in this case to make execution unjust and unconstitutional. The organization urges the court to reconsider Addison’s sentence and prevent New Hampshire from becoming the first state to execute someone under a repealed death penalty statute.
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