Teenager gets life sentence for raping and killing his maths teacher

                                                                          (C)AP

A teenager who raped and killed his high school maths teacher was sentenced yesterday to life in prison with eligibility for parole in 40 years. The 2013 slaying of Danvers High School teacher Colleen Ritzer by Philip Chism was “brutal and senseless”, Salem Superior Court Judge David Lowy said as he pronounced the sentence.
“Colleen Ritzer lived a life of quiet heroism,” the judge said. “The crashing waves of this tragedy will never wane.”
Chism was 14 when he followed Ritzer, who was 24, into a school bathroom, strangled her, stabbed her at least 16 times and raped her. His lawyers acknowledged he killed her but argued he was mentally ill, a contention rejected by the jury. Chism, now 17, will serve life in prison with the possibility of parole in 25 years on a murder charge, but he received 40-year concurrent sentences on rape and robbery charges.

                                                           (C)AP

The net result will leave him eligible to be paroled in 40 years, when he would be in his 50s. Ritzer’s parents said Chism should never have a chance to leave prison on parole. Her mother, Peggie Ritzer, called the sentence unacceptable. She blamed the state Supreme Judicial Court, which ruled in December 2013 that juveniles could not be sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole. Prosecutors had asked that Chism stay in prison for at least 50 years. Defence attorney Susan Oker asked for a sentence that would make Chism eligible for parole no later than age 40. She cited scientific studies that said a juvenile brain is not fully developed.
Chism’s mother, Diane Chism, cried quietly as he was sentenced. Earlier yesterday, she released a statement expressing her condolences to Ritzer’s family.
“Words can’t express the amount of pain and sorrow these past two-and-a-half years have been,” she said.
A psychiatrist who testified for the defence said Chism, who had just moved to Massachusetts from Clarksville, Tennessee, was hearing voices and was in the throes of a psychotic episode when he killed Ritzer. Chism was convicted of raping Ritzer inside the bathroom but was acquitted of a second rape, committed with a tree branch in woods near the school where he put her body. He also was convicted of armed robbery for stealing Ritzer’s credit cards and underwear.

Source: The Journal