LANSING, Michigan (AP) — The Michigan Department of Corrections has refused parole for a convicted serial killer who confessed to killing four women in the Lansing area in the 1970s.
Don Miller | Credit: MDOC
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Don Miller, 67, will then be eligible for parole on Aug. 29, 2027, the Eaton County prosecutor’s office said in a release on Friday. The office said it learned Thursday that Miller had been denied parole.
After confessing to the four deaths, Miller was allowed to plead guilty to only two counts of manslaughter for leading authorities to some of the bodies.
He was also convicted of raping and strangling a 14-year-old girl and strangling and stabbing her 13-year-old brother. Miller was later convicted of possessing a weapon in prison.
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Earlier this year, Democratic leader Gretchen Whitmer signed new laws that would allow the probation commission to defer assessments of murderers and other violent offenders so that they take place every five years instead of every one or two years.
The two-pronged measures targeted what supporters said was an unintended consequence of a 2018 law changing the parole process. The legislation was urged by victims who survived Miller.
One of the changes to the 2018 law was a provision that shortened the maximum period between parole assessments from five years to one year for a detainee who was refused entry despite a high or average chance of release. It was shortened from five years to two for a prisoner with a low probability of parole.
“This extended period gives victims time to heal and limits the level of revictimization that occurs with the annual parole review,” prosecutor Douglas Lloyd said Friday.
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