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Killer of Manchester police officer wants death penalty test revisted

Lawyers for the man sentenced to death for killing a Manchester police officer want the New Hampshire Supreme Court to reconsider its test for measuring the fairness of his sentence.

Michael Addison is on death row for gunning down Manchester Police Officer Michael Briggs four years ago.

The state Supreme Court said his sentence will be compared to cases nationwide in which the defendant was convicted of killing an on-duty police officer.

But Addison's lawyers say that test excludes the only other New Hampshire capital case in decades that reached a penalty phase -the murder-for-hire case of John Brooks. They say the court should examine why one jury spared Brooks a death sentence and another sentenced Addison to death.

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