No one in New Hampshire is categorically prohibited from changing their name, but the law has required certain people (those who are incarcerated, on probation or parole, or who are required to register as sex offenders or offenders against children) to prove their name change. . is “required” before your request can be granted.
Those stricter rules will apply to a larger group of people once the new legislation, House Bill 1003, takes effect in 60 days. Anyone convicted of crimes against a child or certain violent crimes, including murder, manslaughter, negligent homicide, kidnapping, arson, robbery, criminal sexual assault, and human trafficking, will not be able to change their name unless they can demonstrate the need to do it. .
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The new law also adds a notification requirement when a restricted person files a name change petition. The probate court must notify not only the Department of Corrections or the Department of Security, depending on the circumstances, but also the “initial processing jurisdiction,” which must then make “a reasonable effort” to notify the victim. or her closest relatives.
That additional notification requirement could prevent the type of mistake that allowed a convicted murderer to legally change his name from James Covington to Jamauri Covington while in prison in 2022 without the New Hampshire Department of Corrections noticing.
Covington, who strangled his ex-girlfriend Debra Duncan in their Somersworth apartment in 1999, told probate court in 2022 that he wanted a “new beginning.” Court records say the sheriff’s office hand-delivered Covington’s name change petition to a jail employee, then a judge granted Covington’s request after receiving no response from the Department of Corrections.
Six months passed before Duncan’s daughters, Jennifer McCulloch and Erica Duncan, realized that Covington’s name had disappeared from the tracking and notification systems they use to stay up to date on his incarceration and possible release. They alerted authorities, prompting the attorney general’s office to sue Covington, successfully undo his name change, and persuade a judge to reject Covington’s subsequent name change petition.
Duncan’s daughters were among five victims who shared their stories with lawmakers, with moral support from the New Hampshire Coalition Against Domestic and Sexual Violence.
The coalition’s public affairs director, Amanda Grady Sexton, said it was an honor to support the survivors who advocated for HB 1003. She thanked lawmakers for listening to their stories and thanked Sununu for signing the legislation, which she said adds important safeguards “to ensure that violent criminals cannot simply erase their past and escape responsibility through a name change.”
This report includes material from previous Boston Globe articles.
You can contact Steven Porter at steven.porter@globe.com. FOLLOW IT @reporteroportero.
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