Families of victims split over parole for offenders
Family members of homicide victims in some of the state’s most infamous murder cases were somewhat divided over whether parole should be offered for those who ended the lives of their loved ones.
“This is not a liberal issue or conservative issue — this is an issue that must be focused on justice for victims who are no longer with us,” said Peggy Ritzer, whose daughter Colleen Ritzer was murdered in 2013. “Those who intentionally take an innocent life should not have an opportunity for parole. It is that simple.”
Throughout a tearful Joint Committee on the Judiciary hearing Tuesday, several family members of those who had been murdered opposed a bill that would make prisoners serving life without parole, including for first-degree murders, eligible for it after 25 years.
Colleen Ritzer was a 24year-old math teacher at Danvers High School when she was raped and killed after school by a 14-yearold student, who discarded her body in the woods. He then used her stolen credit cards to watch a movie at Hollywood Hits and buy a burger, Peggy Ritzer said through tears.
“We understand that no single hearing or trial will fill the immeasurable void of our loss, yet as long as there are hearings in our future that permit the possibility of release of the evil that took Colleen’s life, or reduction in his sentence, we cannot be at peace,” she said.
Kathleen Koonz, whose paraplegic elderly mother and stepfather were murdered in Orange in 2016 during a break-in, vehemently opposed the legislation. “Unlike the victims, the murderers are not being deprived of life experiences, albeit in prison. They’re given opportunities to take courses, to read books, write, paint and more,” she said. “Family murder victims can’t have any of this.”
But not all family members agreed. Kirsten Engel, whose father “brutally murdered” her mother in 1999, supported the proposed legislation because “my sadness and my loss are no way mitigated by the fact that her alleged perpetrator, my father, has been in jail for over 20 years. His never-ending punishment does not lessen my pain … it will never bring my mother back.”
State Rep. Liz Miranda, D-Boston, filed the bill, informed by her own experience losing her brother to murder outside a Boston nightclub in 2017. “That is not a ‘get-out-of-jail-free card,’” she said. “No one here advocates for the release of serial killers and others who we deem are the worst of the worst offenders.”
She added that it only gives offenders the option of parole review, which she said would be especially impactful for those who were juveniles when they committed their crimes.