‘Don’t do this.’ Parents of Danvers teacher slain by student oppose bill to grant parole eligibility to first-degree murderers after 25 years

Danvers High School teacher Colleen Ritzer was killed in 2013.AP/Courtesy of Dale Webster via the Lawrence Eagle-Tribune/file

The parents of Colleen Ritzer, a 24-year-old Danvers High School teacher slain by one of her students in 2013, on Tuesday urged lawmakers to reject a proposed bill that would grant parole eligibility to convicted killers after 25 years behind bars, ending life without the possibility of parole for those found guilty of first-degree murder.

“Those who intentionally take an innocent life should not have an opportunity for parole. It’s that simple,” said Peggy Ritzer, Colleen’s mother, during a State House hearing on the bill pending before the Joint Committee on the Judiciary.

Lawmakers also heard from someone at the center of another high-profile case: Sean Ellis, a supporter of the bill who spent more than two decades in prison for the 1993 murder of Boston police Detective John J. Mulligan until his conviction was tossed due to government misconduct. Ellis has adamantly maintained his innocence.

“I was sentenced to life without parole,” Ellis told the committee. “The base of my hope was violently shaken, and I was crushed.”

Ritzer, testifying after Ellis, didn’t name her daughter’s killer, Philip Chism, who was 14 at the time of the slaying and sentenced in 2016 to serve at least 40 years in prison before he can seek parole. Prosecutors said at trial he followed his teacher after school on Oct. 22, 2013 into a girls bathroom where he raped and slashed her with a box cutter. He later put her body in a recycling bin and wheeled it into woods near the school.

The trial judge couldn’t sentence Chism to life without parole eligibility, after the state’s highest court struck down such sentences for juveniles.

Under current law in Massachusetts, adults convicted of first-degree murder receive automatic life sentences with no chance for parole, though they’re also guaranteed a review of their cases before the state Supreme Judicial Court, with a taxpayer-funded appellate lawyer if they can’t afford their own.

The bill pending before the committee wouldn’t guarantee those convicted of first-degree murder would go free. Instead, their requests for release would have to be approved by the state Parole Board. Victims’ relatives and prosecutors are permitted to testify at Parole Board hearings.

“Lost in a debate of life without parole are the rights of the deceased and their families, the victims,” Peggy Ritzer said. “Our daughter Colleen was finishing a typical day as a teacher at Danvers High when her life was taken by a student who carefully executed [his] premeditated actions.”

She lamented that Chism will one day have a chance to win his freedom.

“While he was responsible for taking a life, he will be afforded a second chance,” she said. “Our daughter and family will not . . . Convicted murderers, regardless of age, must be sentenced to life without parole. Justice must be served.”

At the time of her death, Colleen had become a role model for many of her students at Danvers High, where they had come to know her as smart, gracious, and persistent, as diligent about grading their geometry problem sets as helping to ground them amid the turbulence of adolescence.

Before she became a teacher, she stood out as a stellar student at Assumption College in Worcester, where she majored in mathematics, minored in psychology, and graduated magna cum laude.

The lawmakers on Tuesday also heard from Colleen’s father, Tom Ritzer.

“My message is simple,” he said. “Don’t do this. Don’t do this to the victims. Don’t do this to the families. Think about what you’ll put the families through . . . There’s no justice strong enough for someone who rapes and murders your daughter. The least you can ask for is life without parole. We didn’t get that. Don’t take it from the families that did. Now you want to give them all a chance for parole at 25 years? Really? Come on. This is infuriating and disrespectful to all the families and the victims. We deserve better than this. Justice must support the victims, not the criminals. Respect and honor Colleen, and all the victims. We strongly oppose” the bill. “Don’t do this.”

But others testified in favor of the bill, including Ellis, who described himself as an “exoneree” during the hearing. He told lawmakers he was speaking in favor of the bill “despite having two close cousins and several childhood friends murdered.”

“I lived my days in prison wondering if [dying in custody] would befall me,” Ellis said.

He recalled a gang riot at MCI Norfolk when he was being held there and told the panel that while none of the perpetrators were serving life terms, the men who were worked to “mediate this conflict.”

“I still get calls from people in prison, and I’ve talked to families of those in prison serving life without parole,” Ellis said. “And I tell you that the loss of hope is palpable . . . This bill does not guarantee one’s release from prison. Parole is not automatic, nor is it guaranteed. I ask you to favorably report this bill out of committee” to the full Legislature for a vote.