Prosecutor at peace with decision to spare Green River Killer

SEATTLE -- Like any politician who breaks a promise, King County Prosecutor Norm Maleng expected a heavy dose of criticism for letting the Green River Killer escape death row. By and large, it hasn't come.

"When I made the decision, I felt at peace with it," Maleng said. "I did then, and I do today."

If that means that Maleng, a tough-on-crime Republican who has sought the death penalty 20 times in the 25 years he has been in office, is remembered for the execution he didn't seek, so be it, he says.

When Green River Killer suspect Gary Ridgway was charged in 2001, Maleng vowed that his office would not bargain away the death penalty. But after careful consideration, he did just that, allowing Ridgway to avoid lethal injection by confessing to dozens of unsolved murder cases.

On Nov. 5, Ridgway pleaded guilty to 48 murders for a two-decade rampage targeting runaways and prostitutes. He became the deadliest convicted serial killer in U.S. history.

At the time Maleng agreed to the plea bargain, Ridgway was charged with only seven slayings, and investigators had all but given up hope of linking him to the others. Maleng says he made the deal to bring answers -- and peace of mind -- to the victims' families and to the community. Ridgway has since led authorities to the bodies of four women.

In the past two weeks, Maleng's office has received about 120 letters and e-mails concerning the decision. Most have been supportive, says his spokesman, Dan Donohoe. Both of Seattle's daily newspapers, including the pro-death-penalty Seattle Times, wrote editorials praising him.

The sheriff, Ridgway's attorneys, all of the investigators on the Green River Task Force and most of the victims' relatives have said they are satisfied with the outcome.

One of the few traces of outcry has been on the editorial page of The Seattle Times, where letters were running 8-to-1 against the decision until Maleng wrote a piece explaining himself. Since then, the opposition has softened considerably, letters editor Diane Albert says.

Some have complained that Maleng's decision will make it tougher to win death sentences against less prolific killers, and that it robbed the community of retribution for his crimes.

"I heard some grumblings from other prosecutors in his office. But he really wrestled with it and he made the right decision," said Eric Lindell, one of Ridgway's lawyers. "I was pleased he had the courage, being a politician, to make a decision like this. That's a gutty thing to do."

Three of Ridgway's lawyers met with Maleng in April to propose a plea deal. Maleng's initial reaction, he says, was an emphatic "no": Prosecutors must not bargain with the death penalty because it can too easily be used to prompt a guilty plea from an innocent suspect.

That is not what he told the defense attorneys, however; he told them he would consider it.

Maleng, a bespectacled, ruddy-faced 65-year-old, was first elected county prosecutor in 1978, and has developed a reputation for making thoughtful, principled decisions. His office has filed aggravated-murder charges 78 times since Washington reinstated capital punishment in 1981; Maleng has sought the death penalty in 20 of those cases, including Ridgway's.

Juries have voted for execution in five of those cases. Three had their sentences reduced on appeal to life without parole; two remain on death row.

Maleng says he spoke with many people, including friends and detectives, and considered Ridgway's plea offer from all conceivable angles except the millions of dollars it would save the county. He thought about it in terms of his contempt for Ridgway; in terms of his mission, which he says is not only to win cases, but to ensure justice; and in terms of his faith, as a lay Episcopalian minister.

He also considered it as a parent who had lost a child. His daughter, Karen, was killed in a sledding accident in 1989, a month shy of her 13th birthday.

"I know the greatest loss anybody can sustain is for a parent to lose a child," he says. "That has had a powerful impact on my life, and all aspects of my life. If you haven't been through it, you don't know what kind of experience it is."

As he was driving to work one morning a few weeks after his meeting with Ridgway's lawyers, he thought of a passage from 1 Corinthians: "For now we see in a mirror, dimly, but then face to face."

Instead of seeing only Ridgway's face, he says, he began to see the other faces involved: the victims, their families and the community.

"As I went through that process I really grabbed ahold of another principle of justice -- the need to know the truth," he says.

He called Sheriff Dave Reichert, who had investigated the case as a young detective in the 1980s, and told him Ridgway would live. Reichert solemnly concurred, as did every member of the sheriff's Green River Task Force.

"This unit, to the detective, supported that. We knew that this was going to be the only way we were ever going to hear the story," says Detective Randy Mullinax. "We were very appreciative of Norm Maleng for making a very difficult decision."