Thursday, April 23, the Supreme court of Washington dismissed a lawsuit demanding the release of thousands of prisoners to help stop the spread of the coronavirus.
Among these thousands of prisoners reportedly included Gary Ridgway, the so-called «Killer green river», which in 2003 was sentenced to life imprisonment after confessing to killing 49 women in the 1980-ies.
According to radio station KIRO in Seattle, a lawyer representing prisoners who were considered for release (about two thirds of the prison population of the state), claimed that those behind bars can’t protect themselves from the virus. He said that elderly prisoners, prisoners with poor health or those who are very close to the release date must be released.
«We can all hold in our homes. We can decide who we let into our homes, — said the lawyer Nicolas Strauli. — People in prison this is not possible».
Assistant attorney General John Samson, speaking against the mass release, told the court that the prisoners received face masks and separate beds, and the Department of corrections conducted a test on the virus for 300 prisoners and freed some criminals.
In the end the court order, signed by chief justice Debra Stephens, said that the petitioners «failed to prove that the treatment of state prisoners is tantamount to deliberate indifference to the risk COVID-19».
70-year-old (now) Gary Ridgway strangled prostitutes, runaways from home and other vulnerable members of the community in his truck after sex. He then dumped their bodies near the green river in the Seattle area.
Ridgway claimed to have killed 60 women, but prosecutors were able to link him with 49 murders.
