Do tough-on-crime death penalty advocates have a new hero in state Attorney General Kelly Ayotte? Perhaps. Ayotte is seeking the death penalty against John A. Brooks for allegedly engineering a 2005 murder-for-hire scheme. New Hampshire Union Leader reporter Kathryn Marchocki points out in her story, "[t]his is the second time Ayotte has sought the death penalty since she became the state’s top prosecutor, in July 2004."
I oppose the death penalty, but I recognize that I am in the extreme minority on this matter. With crime seemingly on the rise here in the Granite State, Ayotte is well positioned to cast herself as a genuine crime fighter if she were ever to seek higher state office (Note to Gov. Lynch: There’s only one state office higher than Ayotte’s present office). And given the impressive manner in which she represented the state against Planned Parenthood of Northern New England before the U.S. Supreme Court, we could be looking at a new rising star.