By PAULA TRACY, InDepthNH.org

CONCORD – New Hampshire needs increased penalties for fentanyl dealers, Gov. Kelly Ayotte said, noting she supports a pair of bills making their way through the Republican-controlled Senate and House.

She also told reporters that she does not share the House budget view on cuts to the Department of Corrections and supports a high court decision to keep convicted murderer Robert Tulloch behind bars.

The House Criminal Justice and Public Safety Committee is expected to vote next week on the two bills which passed the Senate on a partisan basis related to drug crimes.

Senate Bill 14 adds mandatory minimum sentences for certain fentanyl-related offenses while Senate Bill 15 would establish mandatory minimum sentences for the crimes of distributing a controlled drug with death resulting.

“I believe we do need tougher penalties for fentanyl dealers,” Ayotte told reporters in her office, Wednesday. 

“I learned that we used to (have) the toughest penalties in the region. No longer. I talked to the DEA. I talked to law enforcement about it,” said the state’s former Attorney General.

“We are not talking about the people who are struggling with addiction. We are talking about the people who make the money off trafficking this poison into our state. I hope that these mandatory penalties get passed and that we are the toughest in the region,” she said.

And looking across the country she said she wants New Hampshire to be among the toughest on such drug dealers.

In one of her first days in office, Ayotte announced that the state and the City of Lawrence, Mass. will have a direct line of communication on drugs. Since then she said she has heard that the collaboration between that city and the state is helping to improve the situation.

MEDICAID AND WORK

The governor also said she would support a work requirement to receive Medicaid.

“I think it does make sense because if someone is able to work it also gives them the empowerment of work. And obviously there are individuals who aren’t capable of working because they may have a disability or they may have other family circumstances so we would address that in any work requirement,” Ayotte said.

CORRECTIONS BUDGET

The 10 percent cut to the Department of Corrections as has been envisioned by the Republican controlled House which would require 100 layoffs is “quite different” than what she proposed in her budget. She proposed a 4.5 percent cut in each of the next two years without any layoffs.

“I looked very carefully at the issue,” and unlike House budget writers Ayotte met with the commissioner, Helen Hanks.

“The reality is we have too many vacant corrections officer positions right now. If I could hire – and we are going to obviously push to hire more corrections officers – then we could reduce the cost of overtime and also, it takes a toll on corrections for these officers to have to do so much overtime. So the idea that we would cut these positions does not make sense to me in terms of how we can properly make sure that that department is operating well, is operating safely and that it is fulfilling its essential mission. So I do hope the Senate looks at this and asks ‘is this realistic?’ And the answer is ‘No.’ It is not realistic what was proposed in the House” passed budget.”

TULLOCH

The New Hampshire Supreme Court announced this week it is declining to take up the question of Robert Tulloch’s life sentence without the possibility of parole.

Tulloch is behind bars for his role in the 2001 double-murder of Dartmouth professors Half Zantop, 62, and Susanne Zantop, 55. 

Tulloch was 17 when he and his high school friend, James Parker, then 16, killed the couple in their Etna home after picking them at random.

Tulloch was seeking a new sentence in the case, arguing that life sentences without the possibility of parole for minors are unconstitutional. 

Grafton Superior Court Judge Leonard MacLeod referred the life sentence question to the Supreme Court in February, seeking a ruling on the constitutional question before he holds a resentencing hearing for Tulloch.

But the Supreme Court declined the referral this month in a unanimous declination.

Ayotte, who prosecuted the case, said it was a “premeditated first-degree murder” and said she feels that the sentence should stand given the brutality of the crime.