Convicted killer of Dartmouth professors released from prison

A man convicted for his role in the stabbing deaths of two Dartmouth College professors in 2001 has been released from prison.

James Parker was just 16 years old when he and his best friend, 17-year-old Robert Tulloch, fatally stabbed Half and Susanne Zantop in Hanover, New Hampshire.

The shocking crime was part of a plan by the two teenagers, who wanted to kill and rob people before moving to Australia.

The two friends posed as students conducting an investigation when they knocked on the door of Zantops. Susanne was chair of the German studies department at Dartmouth College, while Half taught in the school's earth sciences department.

Parker and Tullock then fatally stabbed the couple and fled with $340. They were arrested in Indiana a few weeks later.

Parker pleaded guilty to accessory to second-degree murder in 2004 and was sentenced to 25 years in prison, with credit for the 410 days he had already served.

In April, after serving almost the minimum term of his sentence, the 39-year-old was granted parole.

“I know I can't do much time or things to change [what I did] or relieve any pain I have caused,” he said at the parole hearing, calling his actions “unimaginably horrific.”

On Friday, Parker's attorney, Cathy Green, said her client was released on the condition of a “no contact” order with the Zantop family.

Parker will remain under surveillance until 2098, local television station WMUR reported.

Tulloch, now 41, pleaded guilty to two counts of first-degree murder. Although he was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole, he is expected to be sentenced again in July due to a 2012 Supreme Court ruling that ruled it unconstitutional to sentence juveniles to prison in life without parole.

With news feed services