The man who stabbed 15-year-old James Alenson to death in a Lincoln-Sudbury Regional High School bathroom in 2007 is now asking the state to set him free. John Odgren, who was 16 at the time of the killing, is 36 years old and will go before the Massachusetts Parole Board for an initial hearing in Natick.
According to The Boston Globe, Odgren's initial hearing is scheduled for November 10. A Massachusetts hearing-calendar document lists the same case with a November 12 date, so the exact day of the hearing remains unsettled between the two records. A Middlesex Superior Court jury found Odgren guilty of first-degree murder in 2010 for the January 19, 2007, stabbing death of Alenson, whom he did not know.
Odgren had brought a kitchen knife to school that day and attacked Alenson inside a bathroom, per the Globe's report. At trial, Odgren, through his attorneys, admitted he had killed Alenson but argued he lacked criminal responsibility because long-term psychiatric issues, including depression coupled with Asperger's, made him psychotic at the time, the newspaper reported.
What Happened Inside That Bathroom
Court records tell a harrowing account of the attack's final moments. A student witness heard a brief struggle and heard Alenson say, “What are you doing? Stop that. Ow, ow. You're hurting me,” according to the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court decision published by law.justia.com. The same witness then noticed three or four drops of blood at the foot of the stall.
The court record states the witness saw Odgren sitting on the bathroom floor with his arms wrapped around his knees, a large knife nearby. Odgren reportedly said, “Oh, my God. Oh, my God. What did I just do?” and asked whoever was in the stall to get help, adding, “Don't let him die. It was all me. I did this. I just went crazy.” An autopsy found Alenson died from stab wounds to his heart, left lung, and liver, the court record shows.
A Legal Fight That Spanned Years
A jury convicted Odgren of first-degree murder on theories of deliberate premeditation and extreme atrocity or cruelty, the same court record states. His attorneys later argued that his juvenile brain had not fully developed and that he should not have faced trial, conviction, or sentencing as an adult, but the Supreme Judicial Court rejected those arguments in a 2019 ruling, as the Globe reported. The court concluded the jury had been sufficiently aware of the effects of Odgren's age and diagnoses on his ability to form intent to kill.
First-degree murder normally carries an automatic life sentence with no chance of parole. Odgren's path to a hearing opened only after the Supreme Judicial Court's 2024 ruling in Commonwealth v. Mattis, which found that life without the possibility of parole for emerging-adult offenders violates the Massachusetts Declaration of Rights, according to the decision posted on law.justia.com. That ruling directed parole boards to weigh the circumstances of the crime, including the offender's age, alongside the offender's character and conduct since conviction — but the court was explicit that the decision does not suggest offenders who benefit from resentencing should automatically be paroled.
Where Odgren Is Now
Odgren is currently incarcerated at North Central Correctional Institution in Gardner, a medium- and minimum-security prison, the Globe reported. Under Massachusetts law, an indigent prisoner serving a life sentence for an offense committed before age 18 has the right to appointed counsel at the parole hearing and to funds for experts, per the statute published by malegislature.gov.
Alenson's family set up a scholarship fund in his name in 2010, the same year Odgren was convicted. James Alenson had been passionate about football, wore a number 37 Rodney Harrison jersey from August through January, and managed his own fantasy football team. He cherished the holidays, the spirit of the season, and being with family, according to details included in the court record.
