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Turkey pardon comes to Executive Council table

November 25, 2019 GMT

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With Gov. Chris Sununu looking on, left rear, Kate Osgood of Birch Rise Farm, holds Joanna, a turkey pardoned by the governor and Executive Council on Monday, Nov. 25, 2019, at the Statehouse in Concord, N.H. In her pardon request, the bird said she may have stolen food and "flown the coop a few times and blocked the flow of traffic." (AP Photo/Holly Ramer)

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CONCORD, N.H. (AP) — Another New Hampshire turkey will survive past Thanksgiving after a successful pardon plea at the Statehouse.

In his third such request, Sununu asked the Executive Council on Monday to spare the life of a 2-year-old, 18-pound female turkey named Joanna, noting that while the state abolished the death penalty this year, it doesn’t apply to turkeys.

The council’s vote was unanimous, with Councilor Mike Cryans joking that he had no choice given the way the bird was staring at him.

Joanna, raised at Birch Rise Farm in Sanborton, will join last year’s pardon recipient, Brooke, at Crotched Mountain School.

Two years ago, the lucky pardon recipient was named Hale, after Sarah Josepha Hale, the New Hampshire native known as the mother of Thanksgiving.