In an interview after Wednesday’s Executive Council meeting, Gov. Kelly Ayotte added to her tough-on-crime bona fides by calling for New Hampshire to bring back capital punishment.

New Hampshire abolished the death penalty in 2019, when the Democratic-controlled Legislature, with the support of some libertarian Republicans, overrode a veto by Gov. Chris Sununu to pass the ban.

Ayotte believes that was a mistake.

“It’s the only piece of legislation as a private citizen that I came up and testified to the Legislature about,” Ayotte told WMUR’s Adam Sexton. “I asked them not to repeal the death penalty.”

Ayotte has made public safety a top priority of her first term, signing a bill repealing the state’s bail reforms that allowed some violent offenders back on the street. One of them murde

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