LISTEN: Bill Proposes ‘Hard Labor’, Including Manufacturing Work, for Serious Crimes

New Hampshire’s House of Representatives voted to pass a bill that would make “hard labor” a sentencing option for certain prisoners. According to the legislation, such labor would include manufacturing or assembling work that requires “significant physical exertion,” intended to serve as “punitive retribution and societal deterrence.” The bill stated that the sentence would apply in the case of a conviction involving capital murder and serious sexual assaults on children. It requires an affirmative vote of at least nine jurors in a 12-person jury. If imposed, the defendant would face life imprisonment at hard labor without parole.