The Senate hearing on SB 593 on March 12 was powerful and the number of witness in favor of the bill outnumbered opponents by more than 5 to 1. Among those testifying in favor were: Senator Kevin Avard (prime sponsor); Randy Steidl, death row exoneree; Greg Smith, former NH Attorney General; Ray Dodge, former Marlborough NH Police Chief; Steve Kaneb, Catholic Deacon, Mark Sisti, public defender; Rabbi Robin Nafshi, Len Korn, M.D.; Rev. Jason Wells, NH Council of Churches; Barbara Keshen, and others. You can listen to the full hearing on YouTube here.
You can also hear a couple of powerful excerpts from the hearing on AFSC-NH’s State House Watch podcast here (starting at the 7:20 mark).
Directly after the hearing, The Judiciary Committee held an executive session on the bill and voted 3 to 1 in favor of the OTP (ought to pass) motion. Senators Lasky, Hennessey, and French voted in favor, Sen. Carson against.
Shortly after that, we discovered that the full Senate will be voting on the bill THIS THURSDAY, March 15. The bill is listed last on the Senate Addendum Calendar, and may therefore be heard later in the sesssion, though that could change. If you can attend in support of this bill, please do.
Since time is short to influence your senator, if you have not already written to him or her, please do so right away. Simply use the following form:
- Write your legislator (your legislators will be listed after you enter your address – please choose your senator from the list)
We sincerely appreciate your help sending a strong and incontrovertible message.
PS. On Twitter, please use #NHRepealDP & #NHPolitics for hashtags on your posts.