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Green River Murders

Aired November 05, 2003 - 13:01   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.


KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: Now joining us from a legal postmortem, as it were, trial lawyer Karen Russell. She joins us live from Seattle.
Karen, great to see you.

Well, it's obvious this guy was an animal, and I think a lot of people are saying, why not the death penalty?

KAREN RUSSELL, TRIAL LAWYER: Yes, this is just so heart wrenching. It's also riveting, this insight into the mind of a serial killer. I mean, we're hearing things that are just -- it's just so fascinating. But you have to appreciate why the prosecutor made this deal. But for this deal, 41 of these murders would go unsolved. There wasn't a lot of evidence linking Ridgeway to a lot of these murder victims. And it saves a bankrupt city and county lots and lots of money. I know that's hard for victims to hear, but there is this monetary incentive.

PHILLIPS: So you're saying the fact that he, I guess, 'fessed up to 41 other murders, in the long run, means a lot more to the victims' families and maybe to the entire system versus putting him to death for eight?

RUSSELL: Well, it would have also been hard to put him to death. It would have been an expensive and long case. I think the other thing that's really a bombshell here is this is going to effectively end the death penalty in Washington State. We have a proportionality rule here, which means that you have to compare these crimes with other crimes, and so it's going to be hard for the state to say, well, we let Gary Ridgeway walk, but we're going to hold your client to the death penalty for a murder or two.

PHILLIPS: Interesting. Now, they talked about -- this deal, this agreement, was definitely made on the sly, because prosecutors were coming out and saying, there's no way we're going to cut a deal with this guy, but actually, they were. Why was it happening that way?

RUSSELL: Well, I think that they wanted to, you know, do this -- they wanted to do it right. They're going to issue a report. It's going to be 250 pages, about what happened.

And I think the other interesting thing here is that if Ridgeway lied about any of these things, the death penalty will come back on table. So I think they wanted to dot their i's and cross their t's. PHILLIPS: Speak of making sure everything is perfect, the fact that Ridgeway has confessed to these other murders, these 41 other women, you can't just take his word for it. There's got to be some type of investigation or evidence link, right?

RUSSELL: Well, yes. I mean, he led them to bodies. I think the other interesting wrinkle here will be -- some of these bodies -- there are some bodies in Oregon that Oregon authorities want to link Gary Ridgeway with. And the death penalty exists in Oregon, and so that might be some comfort to the Washington State family victims, to see that maybe he will get this ultimate justice some time down the road.

PHILLIPS: We'll definitely be following it. Attorney Karen Russell. Thanks, Karen.

RUSSELL: Thank you, Kyra.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com







Aired November 5, 2003 - 13:01   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: Now joining us from a legal postmortem, as it were, trial lawyer Karen Russell. She joins us live from Seattle.
Karen, great to see you.

Well, it's obvious this guy was an animal, and I think a lot of people are saying, why not the death penalty?

KAREN RUSSELL, TRIAL LAWYER: Yes, this is just so heart wrenching. It's also riveting, this insight into the mind of a serial killer. I mean, we're hearing things that are just -- it's just so fascinating. But you have to appreciate why the prosecutor made this deal. But for this deal, 41 of these murders would go unsolved. There wasn't a lot of evidence linking Ridgeway to a lot of these murder victims. And it saves a bankrupt city and county lots and lots of money. I know that's hard for victims to hear, but there is this monetary incentive.

PHILLIPS: So you're saying the fact that he, I guess, 'fessed up to 41 other murders, in the long run, means a lot more to the victims' families and maybe to the entire system versus putting him to death for eight?

RUSSELL: Well, it would have also been hard to put him to death. It would have been an expensive and long case. I think the other thing that's really a bombshell here is this is going to effectively end the death penalty in Washington State. We have a proportionality rule here, which means that you have to compare these crimes with other crimes, and so it's going to be hard for the state to say, well, we let Gary Ridgeway walk, but we're going to hold your client to the death penalty for a murder or two.

PHILLIPS: Interesting. Now, they talked about -- this deal, this agreement, was definitely made on the sly, because prosecutors were coming out and saying, there's no way we're going to cut a deal with this guy, but actually, they were. Why was it happening that way?

RUSSELL: Well, I think that they wanted to, you know, do this -- they wanted to do it right. They're going to issue a report. It's going to be 250 pages, about what happened.

And I think the other interesting thing here is that if Ridgeway lied about any of these things, the death penalty will come back on table. So I think they wanted to dot their i's and cross their t's. PHILLIPS: Speak of making sure everything is perfect, the fact that Ridgeway has confessed to these other murders, these 41 other women, you can't just take his word for it. There's got to be some type of investigation or evidence link, right?

RUSSELL: Well, yes. I mean, he led them to bodies. I think the other interesting wrinkle here will be -- some of these bodies -- there are some bodies in Oregon that Oregon authorities want to link Gary Ridgeway with. And the death penalty exists in Oregon, and so that might be some comfort to the Washington State family victims, to see that maybe he will get this ultimate justice some time down the road.

PHILLIPS: We'll definitely be following it. Attorney Karen Russell. Thanks, Karen.

RUSSELL: Thank you, Kyra.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com