SEATTLE Serial killer faces life without parole

Two days have been scheduled for sentencing, so victims' families can speak.
SEATTLE (AP) -- To the families who lost loved ones at the hands of Green River serial killer Gary Ridgway, his sentencing is no mere formality. It's their only chance to speak to him directly, be it to curse him or forgive him -- or to hear him say he's sorry, however hollow that may ring.
A King County Superior Court judge was scheduled to sentence Ridgway to life in prison without parole today, as prosecutors and defense attorneys have already agreed.
"After tomorrow, I'm through with him," Kathy Mills, whose 16-year-old daughter, Opal, was killed in 1982, said Wednesday. "I won't think of him anymore. He'll have no hold over me."
Ridgway pleaded guilty last month to 48 murders, more than any other convicted serial killer in U.S. history.
"It's going to be a long, dismal day," predicted Tony Savage, one of Ridgway's lawyers.
The court has set aside two days for Ridgway's sentencing, which 26 victims' families plan to attend, with 21 of them expected to address the court.
Chilling confession
The focus on victims will contrast with Ridgway's Nov. 5 plea hearing, dominated by his chilling, emotionless confession. The statement explained how he killed because he hated prostitutes and didn't want to pay them for sex, and that he killed so many women he had a hard time keeping them straight.
Mills, who works at New Directions Ministries in the Seattle suburb of Kent, said she hoped to address the court and Ridgway directly. Asked whether she would forgive her daughter's killer, she said: "If it's at all possible at that time, I will."
She has already sent the court a letter about her daughter, saying that Opal liked to draw clothes and talked about becoming a designer.
Ridgway was arrested Nov. 30, 2001, after detectives linked his DNA to sperm found in three of the earliest victims. By spring 2002, prosecutors had charged him with seven murders, but they had all but given up hope of linking him to the dozens of other women, most of whom disappeared during a terrifying stretch from 1982 to 1984.
Deal led to discoveries
Last spring, defense attorneys offered King County Prosecutor Norm Maleng a deal: If Maleng would not seek the death penalty, Ridgway would help solve those other cases. Though Maleng had previously said he would not bargain away the death penalty, he changed his mind, saying that a fundamental principle of justice is to know the truth.
Ridgway eventually confessed 48 murders -- the most recent in 1998 -- and led investigators to four previously undiscovered sets of remains.
Savage said he expects his client to apologize.
"I'm expecting he will give a statement," Savage said. "I assume it will be one of remorse and regret that will fall on deaf ears, but he will say it."