Sims: In Warmington's World, Cop Killers Live And Unborn Children Die

By Bronwyn Sims, NH Journal

I am an undeclared voter in New Hampshire. I walked away from the Democratic Party because too many of its positions no longer match common sense, and because the party that claims to be the party of kindness and women’s rights cannot even say, plainly, what a woman is.

Cinde Warmington has made two positions especially clear in this race, and I cannot square them.

Asked on WMUR about the possible execution of Michael Addison, convicted of murdering Manchester police Officer Michael Briggs, she said she does not believe in the death penalty. “I don’t believe in the death penalty, and I’ve made that very clear. And so I don’t believe that we should be going forward with the death sentence.”

At the same time, she wants to repeal New Hampshire’s law banning abortions after 24 weeks, supporting abortion at any point in a pregnancy, no matter how late. In a 2024 debate, she called the existing law a “dangerous” ban that “criminalizes doctors” and said she would repeal it.

So here is her position, stated plainly: She would step in to stop the execution of a convicted cop killer, and she would remove the state’s 24-week legal limit on abortion.

How does she balance those two positions in her own mind? OK to end a pregnancy with no legal limit, but not OK to carry out a jury’s death sentence for the murder of a police officer?

When Addison murdered Michael Briggs, the Manchester police officer was 35, a military veteran, a husband, and a father of two. A jury sentenced Addison to death in 2008. The New Hampshire Supreme Court reaffirmed that sentence in 2015. New Hampshire abolished the death penalty in 2019, but that repeal did not apply to people already sentenced. Addison remains the state’s only person on death row while the last legal challenges are resolved.

Gov. Kelly Ayotte, who prosecuted the case as attorney general, has said Addison should face the death penalty for murdering Briggs.

This is not an abstract debate. A police officer was killed in the line of duty, and a candidate for governor has already said she would not proceed with the execution.

I left the Democrats because the party says it supports women, then will not state that there are two sexes, male and female. It grants women every ordinary right and privilege, then still claims women have no rights. It will not keep men who say they are women out of women’s sports, bathrooms, locker rooms, and prisons. That is not support for women. It is dogma, and it is doing real harm.

The same party does not support police, and it does not support immigration law enforcement. Warmington’s answer on Addison fits that pattern. But it doesn’t fit mine.

I believe in common sense and in truth. I believe criminals who commit horrific crimes belong behind bars, and that the death penalty should remain available when a person has earned it. I believe in actual women’s rights, not a politics that cannot define a woman. I also believe every woman considering an abortion should have to visit a pregnancy resource center before she decides.

New Hampshire voters can ask the question directly: Whose lives would a Governor Warmington protect?

Where should the law draw its lines? And are those principles applied the same way when the life in question is a convicted murderer, as opposed to an innocent, unborn child?

I already know how I answer that. I am looking for a governor who answers it with common sense.

Bronwyn Sims is a creator, performer, choreographer, and educator. She wrote this for NHJournal.com.

This story was originally published by the NH Journal, an online news publication dedicated to providing fair, unbiased reporting on, and analysis of, political news of interest to New Hampshire. For more stories from the NH Journal, visit NHJournal.com.