Parole denied for Michigan man who killed 4 women in 1970s
Don Miller (Photo: Michigan Department of Corrections)
LANSING, Mich. (AP) - The Michigan Department of Corrections has denied parole for a convicted serial killer who confessed to killing four women in the Lansing area in the 1970s.
Don Miller, 67, will next be eligible for parole Aug. 29, 2027, the Eaton County prosecutor’s office said Friday in a release. The office said it was notified Thursday that Miller had been denied parole.
Following his confession to the four deaths, Miller was allowed to plead guilty to just two counts of manslaughter because he led authorities to some of the bodies.
He also was convicted of raping and strangling a 14-year-old girl and strangling and stabbing her 13-year-old brother. Miller later was sentenced for possessing a weapon in prison.
Earlier this year, Democratic Gov. Gretchen Whitmer signed new laws allowing the parole board to delay reviews of killers and other violent offenders so they occur every five years instead of every one or two years.
The bipartisan measures addressed what supporters said was an unintended consequence of a 2018 law that changed the parole process. The legislation was spurred by victims who survived Miller.
Among the changes in the 2018 law was a provision that shortened, from five years to one year, the maximum period between parole reviews for an inmate who was denied despite having a high or average probability of release. It was shortened from five years to two for a prisoner with a low probability of parole.
"This extended period of time allows victims time to heal and limits the level of revictimization that occurs with annual parole review," Prosecutor Douglas Lloyd said Friday.