Bill passes to make home invasion part of death penalty

The House on Tuesday (March 15) voted to include homicide during a home invasion as another criteria for the death penalty.

House members in the 2011 Legislature approved the measure -- HB 147 -- on a voice vote without discussion. It now goes to the Senate for consideration.

House Speaker William O'Brien is a prime sponsor of the bill, which he named in honor of Kimberly Cates, the 42-year-old mother who was murdered during a home invasion in her Mount Vernon house in 2009. Cates' daughter was seriously injured in the attack. O'Brien is also from Mount Vernon.

"The senseless murder of Kimberly Cates shocked Mont Vernon and the state. The goal of this legislation is to act as a deterrent to ensure that anyone who would consider such a heinous crime would think twice before they go forward," he said in a statement after the vote.

Should the bill make it to Gov. John Lynch it at least arrives with his approval. The question will be whether he likes the language contained within the measure.

He submitted a letter to the House pledging to work with lawmakers to pass a bill tailored to apply to home invasion murders. One issue is that there is no such New Hampshire crime as a home invasion.

The attorney general's office offered to help narrow the bill to cover cases like the Mont Vernon home invasion, but the House passed O'Brien's bill unchanged.