 Capital punishment was a major issue that was debated in the state during <unk> 's tenure , with social reformers calling for its abolition . Briggs personally favored capital punishment , but for political reasons called for <unk> in its use , seeking , for example , to limit its application in murder cases to those involving first degree murder . After an <unk> in an 1846 murder case where anti @-@ death penalty sentiment was thought to have a role , Briggs , seeking to undercut the anti @-@ death penalty lobby , proposed eliminating the penalty for all crimes except murder , but expressed concern that more such <unk> by sympathetic <unk> would undermine the connection between crime and punishment . 
