New Hampshire Considers Legislation to Expand Wrongful Conviction Parameters

The ability to file a motion for a new trial is a critical post-conviction mechanism that helps identify wrongful convictions. In New Hampshire, there is a strict three-year deadline to file a motion for a new trial. This restriction means that even if New Hampshire residents wrongfully convicted of a crime have newly discovered evidence of innocence, they are outright denied an opportunity to file a petition to be heard.

Senate Bill 141 would create a narrow exception to the three-year time bar, allowing the innocent to file a motion after three years if there is newly discovered evidence, new forensic testing, or new scientific understanding in their case. The current law states that a new trial shall not be granted unless the petition is filed within three years after the judgment or failure of the suit.

The new language introduces a provision that allows for an extension of this timeframe under specific circumstances, which include cases where a petitioner is seeking a new trial in a criminal case resulting in a felony or class A misdemeanor conviction, is either incarcerated or subject to the terms of a sentence, and states there is existence of newly discovered evidence.

Additionally, the bill defines "newly discovered evidence" to encompass evidence that can undergo new forensic testing or is based on new scientific understanding, as well as evidence that was inadmissible at the time of trial but is admissible when the petition is filed.

Senate Bill 141 passed the New Hampshire Senate in March and is currently in hearings in the New Hampshire House. If you're a New Hampshire resident, use this legislative lookup tool to contact your New Hampshire State Representative and voice to them your support for Senate Bill 141. Also feel free to share among your contacts and connections who are New Hampshire voters OR have New Hampshire voters in their own networks.

Many exonerees have to wait years before new evidence was uncovered in their cases or new forensic testing or scientific understanding was available. There should never be a hard deadline when it comes to filing a motion to prove innocence.