A man who pleaded guilty is challenging his life-without-parole sentence

A man who pleaded guilty as a teenager to the 2001 stabbing deaths of two married Dartmouth College professors is challenging his life-without-parole sentence, saying that the New Hampshire Constitution prohibits it.  Robert Tulloch was 17 when he killed Half and Susanne Zantop in Hanover as part of a conspiracy he and his best friend concocted to rob and kill people before fleeing to Australia with their ill-gotten gains. A hearing was held Wednesday in Grafton County Superior Court to consider legal issues raised in Tulloch’s case. Tulloch, 41, chose not to attend. Tulloch awaits resentencing at a later date, following a 2012 U.S. Supreme Court decision that said mandatory life sentences without parole for juveniles amounts to “cruel and unusual” punishment. The New Hampshire attorney general’s office has not yet recommended what term Tulloch should serve when he is resentenced. The office says it’s possible it will ask for a similar life-without-parole sentence.