CONCORD, N.H., Aug. 29 (UPI) -- A New Hampshire man who confessed to the 2001 murders of two professors will get a new sentence, the state's highest court ruled Friday.
Robert W. Tulloch received a mandatory life sentence in 2002 for the murders of Half and Susanne Zantop on January 27, 2001. Tulloch was 17 years old at the time of the murder.
In 2012, the U.S. Supreme Court ruling that found mandatory life sentences for juveniles were unconstitutional. And Friday, the New Hampshire Supreme Court ruled unanimously to vacate Tulloch's sentence, and that of three other men serving life without parole in the state.
"The rule announced in [United States v.] Miller constitutes a new substantive rule of law that applies retroactively," the court wrote in its 11-page decision.
Related
Tulloch and his best friend James J. Parker, both of Chelsea Vermont, met the Zantops at their Etna, N.H., home while looking for someone to rob. When the Dartmouth College professors let them inside the house, Tulloch attacked Half Zantop and then ordered Parker to cut Susanne's throat.
Parker, who was 16 at the time, was tried as an adult but pleaded guilty to second-degree murder on the condition he testify against Tulloch. He was sentenced to 25 years, with possibility for parole after 16 years, and therefore his sentence is not affected by the Miller decision.
"The court affirmed the principle that, as any parent knows, children are different than adults and therefore should constitutionally be treated differently when being sentenced," the New Hampshire Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers said in its statement. "As science has proven, children are more capable of rehabilitation as they grow older and they lack the maturity to understand the full capacity of their acts."
Tulloch and Michael Soto, Robert Dingman and Eduardo Lopez, Jr., will all receive new sentencing hearings under the decision, and the judge will be able to consider their age at the time of the crime as a mitigating factor.
While those new hearings may well result in the same sentences of life without parole, this time, the sentence won't be mandatory.
