A lawmaker said yesterday he will sponsor legislation to make home invasion killings a capital offense and name the bill after a Mont Vernon woman killed with a machete in her bed during a burglary.

Republican Rep. William O'Brien said his bill would apply to anyone who enters a home with the intent to kill.

He is naming the bill after 42-year-old Kimberly Cates, who was killed in a burglary Oct. 4. Her 11-year-old daughter was also attacked but survived.

Four young men have been charged with the attack on Cates and her daughter.

O'Brien said people have a right to go to their homes to rest and be safe. He said his bill is needed to send a message that society will protect the sanctity of the home and that home invaders will be punished harshly.

"We all go to bed to sleep and have the right to expect we won't wake up with a murderer standing over us with a machete," he said. "That's among the worst of acts."

Under O'Brien's bill, prosecutors would have to prove home invaders entered with the specific intent to kill the occupants of the house for the crime to be punishable by the death penalty.

New Hampshire's death penalty law has more restrictions than any state that allows capital punishment. New Hampshire allows capital punishment for six types of crimes, including killing a police officer.

Last year, a man was sentenced to die for killing a police officer - New Hampshire's first death sentence in 50 years. The state's last execution took place in 1939.

The U.S. Supreme Court halted executions in 1972 and lifted the ban four years later. Of the 36 states that allow capital punishment, only New Hampshire and Kansas have had no executions since 1976, according to the Death Penalty Information Center in Washington, D.C.