CONCORD, N.H. (AP) — The Senate Judiciary Committee on Thursday revisited the idea of repealing New Hampshire’s death penalty and recommended that it pass, setting up a potentially historic vote in the chamber next week.
The bill represents the most energetic recent effort to repeal the state’s centuries-old death penalty. It passed the committee by a 3-2 vote, days after the same panel issued a tie vote that could have sounded the death knell on the repeal effort
The House has voted resoundingly for repeal, and the governor supports it. The April 17 vote in the Republican-controlled Senate is said to be too close to call.
‘‘I think it will be a tight vote,’’ Senate Majority Leader Jeb Bradley told the Associated Press. ‘‘I think it will not break down all that much on party lines.’’
‘‘It’s a vote of conscience,’’ said Bradley, a Wolfeboro Republican who opposes repeal.
The Senate Judiciary Committee voted 2-2 Tuesday with one member absent, an outcome that would have automatically sent a message to the Senate to kill the repeal measure.
The committee reconsidered the issue Thursday in deference to Democrat Donna Soucy of Manchester, who missed Tuesday’s meeting due to a family medical issue. There was no debate.
Sens. Soucy; Bette Lasky, D-Nashua; and Sam Cataldo, R-Farmington, voted for repeal; Sens. Sharon Carson, R-Londonderry, and David Boutin, R-Hooksett, voted against.
The state is the closest to repealing the death penalty that it’s been since 2000, when both houses of the Legislature approved repeal, but then-Gov. Jeanne Shaheen vetoed it.
Democratic Gov. Maggie Hassan has said she would sign the repeal measure, because it wouldn’t affect the death sentence of Michael Addison — convicted of killing Manchester Police Officer Michael Briggs in 2006. Addison is the only death row convict in a state that has not seen an execution since 1939.
Death penalty opponents greeted Thursday’s vote with cautious optimism.
Rep. Renny Cushing, a Hampton Democrat whose father and brother-in-law were murdered in separate crimes, has not wavered in his opposition to the death penalty through nearly two decades of sponsoring repeal measures.
‘‘Everybody’s a swing vote,’’ Cushing said after Thursday’s vote.
‘‘It’s not a party issue,’’ he added. ‘‘There are a lot of senators genuinely wrestling with this.’’
The worldwide Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty is holding its quarterly meeting in Concord this weekend, and its members are meeting with Senators to urge repeal.
‘‘They see this as a historic vote,’’ said Arnie Alpert, spokesman for the New Hampshire Coalition Against the Death Penalty.
The House last month voted 225-104 in favor of repeal. The vote in the 24-member Senate — with 13 Republicans and 11 Democrats — could come down to a one-vote margin. A tie vote would kill the measure.
