Legislation to address an obvious wrong in our state’s criminal legal system was unanimously approved by the state Legislature with strong bipartisan support. But Gov. Kelly Ayotte vetoed it, leaving those who have been wrongfully convicted of a crime without recourse even when new evidence arises that proves their innocence. It’s now up to the Legislature to stand tall and override her veto.
For those who have been wrongfully convicted, filing a motion for a new trial is an essential tool to seek justice. New Hampshire, however, is an outlier — imposing a strict three-year deadline on new trial motions even when new evidence of innocence is discovered.
House Bill 1422 addressed this. It would have created a narrow exception to this deadline and allow wrongfully convicted people to petition for a new trial if there is newly discovered evidence, new forensic testing or new scientific understanding of the evidence in their cases.
The Governor based her decision on faulty legal reasoning arguing that convicted individuals can file Habeas corpus or coram nobis petitions. But those types of petitions cannot introduce new evidence, are limited to constitutional violations committed by police or prosecutors during initial investigations or trials, or still include strict time limits — they do not address the problem this legislation would have solved.
Ayotte also claimed that the bill introduced a “novel approach” for innocent people to seek a new trial. But this statute has existed since the inception of written laws in New Hampshire and is well established—– it’s just been inaccessible to innocent people.
As a former Attorney General, Gov. Ayotte should have known better. Her action demonstrates a callous disregard for individual liberty, and leaves wrongfully convicted people no legal pathway to return to court even if newly discovered evidence proves their innocence.
Since 1989, only three people in New Hampshire have been exonerated — the lowest number of any state in America. This is not because New Hampshire’s justice system gets it right more often than every other state. It’s because our laws fail to take into account that science and our scientific understanding are always evolving. Over the years, closer examination of various disciplines — such as bite mark analysis, hair microscopy and arson investigation — revealed major weaknesses. These methods were found to be invalid and later abandoned by the scientific community, but not before they were used to secure thousands of convictions.
As the sole, full-time innocence attorney in the state, I see firsthand how innocent people are sitting in prison for 15, 30 or 50 years with no recourse despite new evidence of innocence being uncovered. Without this bill, we are unable to correct the miscarriages of justice and restore their liberty.
Nationally, over 3,800 people have been exonerated and freed after collectively spending nearly 36,000 years in prison because arbitrary time restrictions on motions for new trials were not a roadblock to exoneration. Take the case of exoneree Kristine Bunch, who traveled to New Hampshire to share her story with lawmakers.
In June 1995, Kristine’s three-year-old son died in a fire that spread through their home in Indiana. What was a tragic accident was mistakenly ruled as arson. Kristine, who was 22 years old and pregnant at the time, was found guilty and sentenced to 60 years in prison. It wasn’t until the early 2000s that early methods of determining arson as the cause of fatal fires were discredited by the scientific community. With these new advancements in fire science, Kristine’s petition for a new trial was granted in 2012, 16 years after her conviction and 13 years past the New Hampshire deadline. Days before Christmas 2012, Kristine was exonerated for a murder she did not commit and never even occurred.
Kristine Bunch’s case proves that our systems need to better reflect reality instead of placing arbitrary time limits on justice. HB 1422 is about giving the wrongfully convicted an opportunity to file a petition to be heard. Each petition would still be reviewed by the courts and only those that meet the burden of proof would be granted relief.
It’s now up to the Legislature to override Ayotte’s ill-advised veto. If not, innocent Granite Staters will continue to be trapped behind bars and the evidence that could free them will remain buried.
Cynthia Mousseau is a staff attorney with the New England Innocence Project, which works to free the innocent and prevent injustices from happening.