Prosecutors push back on judge's ruling that life without parole for minors is 'unconstituional'

A prosecutor is fighting back against a Superior Court judge’s opinion that life sentences without the possibility of parole are unconstitutional for minors in New Hampshire.

The debate has played out for years in the resentencing of Robert Tulloch, who is serving two such sentences for killing two Dartmouth College professors Half and Susanne Zantop inside their Hanover home in 2001. Tulloch, who was 17 at the time of the murders, was given a mandatory sentence of life in prison without the possibility of parole.

Judge Lawrence MacLeod sided with Tulloch’s attorneys in agreeing that the state constitution prohibits life without parole for juveniles, not just those mandatory in nature, in part because it would be a cruel and unusual punishment.

Prosecutors Benjamin Agati and Audriana Me