[HolyWarrior]

King County Journal

KENT -- Kathy Mills is getting up before dawn today to finish a journey that began more than two decades ago when she last saw her daughter, Opal, alive. By 7 a.m. she wants to be sitting with her son, Garrett, in Judge Richard Jones' courtroom in Seattle. Sometime after 9 a.m. she'll face the man prosecutors say killed Opal -- and perhaps dozens of other young women, well into the late 1990s. If today plays out as expected, Gary Leon Ridgway, 54, of Auburn's West Hill will admit to being the nation's most prolific serial killer. If Opal's father, Robert, was in court today, someone would have to hold him down, Mills said. She said he once ached for just 30 minutes alone in the garage with his daughter's killer to find out the truth. But Robert Mills died years ago, knowing the killer was still free. Today's hearing is being held at the end of a shredded shroud of secrecy. Ridgway is expected to change his plea to guilty in the Green River killings, starting in the early 1980s. He's officially charged with seven counts of aggravated first-degree murder. In return for his plea, Ridgway will spend the rest of his life in prison instead of facing the death penalty. Mills isn't so sure she supports that decision, but there's little she can do. Kathy and Garrett Mills met late Monday afternoon with King County Prosecutor Norm Maleng and Sheriff Dave Reichert, who was the lead investigator in the case in the 1980s. They met at an undisclosed location somewhere in the SeaTac area, and were asked not to discuss what was said before today's hearing because Maleng and Reichert still had families to talk with Tuesday. But Kathy Mills did reveal the answer to a question she asked: Won't a plea bargain with the nation's worst serial killer kill the death penalty in Washington state? The answer was ``no,'' according to the officials.

OK, you death penalty abolitionists, tell me why this creep deserves to live.
I think if he had killed women 'of importance' rather than runaways as alleged, this deal would never have happened. [img]graemlins/1pissed.gif[/img]