Gary Place, a Concord man convicted for murdering his fiancee in 1984, is asking for his freedom.
In an unusual move, the state’s Executive Council will take up the request at its meeting Thursday in Meredith. The vote will not center on a pardon itself, but whether to hold a public hearing to re-examine Place’s case that could lead to a pardon.
Advocates say Place, a Vietnam veteran, suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder at the time of the murder and deserves release from his life sentence. Gov. Chris Sununu has indicated an openness to a hearing but is unlikely to allow a pardon if it comes to a later vote.
Place was convicted of first-degree murder after strangling and stabbing his fiancee, Wanda Olsen, in a Concord apartment in 1983. After Olsen attempted to end the relationship, Place suffocated Olsen with an electrical cord and stabbed her in the heart seven times, according to media reports of the trial.
Place, who served in the Marines, said the act was a result of “war trauma,” now commonly known as PTSD, brought about during an argument with Olsen “after the aroma of oriental cooking triggered a flashback to Vietnam,” the United Press International reported at the time. The trial – one of the first in the country in which PTSD was invoked as a defense – featured a parade of psychiatrists diagnosing Place from both sides.
But a Merrimack County Superior Court jury did not accept Place’s defense, finding him guilty after nine hours of deliberations. Place was handed a mandatory life sentence for the crime.
Now, two councilors and an attorney who helped prosecute Place are urging the Council to reconsider the circumstances surrounding the murder and give Place a pardon.
In a Sept. 4 letter sent to Sununu and the Executive Council, John Malmberg, an assistant attorney general for the Department of Justice at the time of the trial, argued that while he stands by the verdict, it’s time for a second chance – particularly in light of modern understandings of PTSD.
“I have no doubt he deserved conviction, but that debt is repaid,” Malmberg said in an interview Wednesday. Releasing Place would allow him to offer public support for other victims of PTSD, he said.
Place’s pardon petition was submitted by his original trial attorney Cathy Green, who arranged a visit between Malmberg and Place earlier this year. And the hearing has been supported by Doreen Perkins, Olsen’s sister and only surviving family member.
The hearing effort has the support of councilors Andru Volinsky, of Concord, and Joseph Kenney, of Union. On Wednesday, Kenney said he’d like a hearing to evaluate the Place’s case in the context of modern science.
“All indications are he’s been a good prisoner for 34 years,” he said. “We’re just sort of reviewing the history and seeing if there’s anything to look at.”
But others, such as the New Hampshire Coalition Against Domestic and Sexual Violence, have urged the Council to quash the request, pointing to a history of domestic violence mentioned in Place’s trial.
“We cannot afford to take such a significant step backwards in working to combat the pervasive crime of domestic violence in the State of New Hampshire,” the group said in a Facebook post, adding that Olsen’s life was “deliberately, heinously, and with premeditation, taken from her at the hands of Gary Place.”
“Granting this request would set a dangerous precedent for other violent offenders and send a devastating message to all victims of domestic violence,” the coalition wrote.
The governor has expressed strong reservations about a pardon, dampening its ultimate likelihood.
“This is a case of extreme domestic violence that resulted in premeditated murder of this poor woman,” he told WMUR Wednesday. “I see no place for pardon at all, and that’s it.”
For the Council, a pardon vote in a murder case is rare. Councilors, who are directly-elected members of the executive branch, typically vote to approve state contracts and gubernatorial nominees.
Thursday’s meeting will be held at 10 a.m. at the “Castle in the Clouds” estate in Moltonborough.