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NH Lawmakers Vote To Expand Death Penalty

CONCORD, N.H. (AP) -- A gruesome attack that killed a New Hampshire woman and wounded her daughter in a home invasion has led New Hampshire's House to vote to expand the state's death penalty law.

Without debate, lawmakers voted Tuesday to make home invasions like the murder of Kimberly Cates a capital crime.

The young men charged in the 2009 machete attack in Mont Vernon couldn't have faced the death penalty because the crime doesn't fall into one of six types of murders punishable by death under New Hampshire's statute, one of the narrowest in the nation.

A 19-year-old has been convicted of Cates' murder and sentenced to life without parole. Co-defendant Christopher Gribble's trial is under way.

(© Copyright 2010 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.)

 

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