Gary Leon Ridgway's attorneys say their client should be commended for his courage.
"He did accept responsibility," lawyer Mark Prothero said.
If Ridgway had gone to trial, his lead lawyer Tony Savage said he wouldn't have used an insanity defense. Nonetheless, something is clearly "out of whack" with Ridgway, he said.
"But he's been diagnosed up one side and down the other and does not meet the Washington definition of criminally insane," Savage said.
To be insane, a criminal either has to not know what he was doing or not be able to distinguish the difference between right or wrong.
Savage said he has no doubt that Ridgway is mentally ill.
"The man is obviously off the rails, down the river and around the bend," he said.
He's also cooperative, attorneys said. And he wants to live.
Prothero said he's noticed an improvement in Ridgway's demeanor since he agreed to cooperate with investigators.
Ridgway told his attorneys that he regrets the killings.
"He says he's sorry," Savage said. "I believe him. How do you know?"
Prothero said he believes Ridgway had a sort of "love-hate" relationship with the prostitutes he frequented and often killed.
Ridgway will keep helping the task force look for bodies and clear cases for the next six months until he's sentenced. He also agreed to talk to criminal profilers to help them polish their investigatory techniques.
Their client didn't fit the profile experts developed in the 1980s, as they sought the Green River Killer. Investigators have never released the profile.
"He just doesn't fit," Savage said. "Gary breaks the mold in a lot of ways."
Ridgway, who attorneys called "pleasant" and "polite," wanted to stop killing, they said.
"I don't think we're ever going to have an answer to what fueled his anger, what caused the first death," Savage said.
It's not possible to even know when the first death was.
Though Wendy Lee Coffield, killed in July 1982, is believed to be the first victim, the attorneys said Ridgway is fuzzy about when the murders began.
There could have been earlier slayings, they said.
Ridgway's team of attorneys comprises Savage - the only one Ridgway paid - and court-appointed attorneys Prothero, Todd Gruenhagen, Michele Shaw, Eric Lindell, Fred Leatherman, Dave Robertson and Suzanne Elliott. Only Elliott, arguing in front of the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals, was missing from the proceedings Wednesday.
Karen Hucks: 253-597-8660
karen.hucks@mail.tribnet.com
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