Man up for parole more than 2 decades after Dartmouth College professor stabbing deaths

CONCORD, N.H. (AP) — A man who has served more than half of his life in prison for his role in the 2001 stabbing deaths of two married Dartmouth College professors as part of a plan to rob and kill people before fleeing overseas is getting his first chance at parole.

James Parker was 16 when he was part of a conspiracy with his best friend that resulted in the deaths of Half and Susanne Zantop in Hanover, New Hampshire. Now just shy of 40, he’s scheduled for a state parole board hearing Thursday, years after pleading guilty to being an accomplice to second-degree murder.

Parker has served nearly the minimum term of his 25-years-to-life sentence.

“I’m sorry,” Parker said, crying at a brief hearing in 2002. “There’s not much more I can say than that. I’m just really sorry.”