Heightened attention

From yesterday's Boston Globe, "N.H. trial fuels death penalty debate":

The horror of the 2009 machete slaying of a New Hampshire nurse, recounted in grisly testimony during the recent trial of Steven Spader, has stoked passions over the death penalty in a state that last held an execution in 1939.

“It’s an awful murder, one of those iconic, high-profile murders that really touch people,’’ said state Representative Renny Cushing, a Democrat from Hampton, N.H., who opposes the death penalty. “It’s an atmosphere of heightened attention in what we do in the aftermath of the killing.’’

Cushing sits on a state commission that has been charged with studying whether the death penalty is sound public policy. Its recommendations are scheduled to be released Dec. 1, and supporters of capital punishment hope large Republican majorities in both chambers of the Legislature renew its use and expand its applicability.

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