New Hampshire Death Penalty: An Associated Press story, by Beth LaMontagne Hall, follows up on a New Hampshire jury's decision to sentence cop-killer Michael Addison to death, and discusses the lengthy appeals process that may delay his execution.  On Appeal, the defense seems prepared to argue that in an overwhelmingly white state, the defendant Addison - who is black - may have received a death sentence because of his race.  The story quotes one DP opponent who believes that supporters of capital punishment are "more likely to have a racial bias."  It is also possible that, rather than Addison's race, the jury was motivated to select the death penalty because of Addison's week-long spree of robberies and armed assaults, which led up to his shooting of a police officer, who had a wife and two young sons, point blank in the face. 

Justice Denied:  After 26 years of review, Arizona murderer Warren Summerlin has managed to avoid the death sentence given to him in 1982.  Michael Kiefer's story in today's Arizona Republic reports that after the Ninth Circuit's 2005 ruling finding that Summerlin's attorney did not present enough mitigating evidence to persuade the judge to give him a life sentence, the Pinal County DA is calling it quits. Over the years of appeals in this case key witnesses have died, making it unlikely that this murder would receive a death sentence at a new sentencing trial. Summerlin was convicted of killing Brenna Bailey in 1981 when she went to his residence on behalf of her employer to attempt to collect a delinquent debt. Summerlin bashed in Ms. Bailey's head and skull, probably with a hatchet, wrapped her partially nude body in a bedspread, and discarded her remains in the trunk of her car.