GRAND RAPIDS, MI – Theodore Glenn Williams, 75, who killed two West Michigan girls in the late 1960s, is held in a psychiatric hospital under a law repealed decades ago, the Criminal Sexual Psychopath Act.

In a case like no other, he has petitioned for his release under the defunct law to judges ranging from the Allegan County Circuit Court to the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals in Cincinnati.

The answer, again and again: No.

The federal appeals court ruled that provisions of the old psychopath law applied: A person in custody “shall be discharged only after there are reasonable grounds to believe that such person has recovered from such psychopathy to a degree that he will not be a menace to others.”

Williams and others were held under provisions of the sexual-psychopath law during the process of the law’s repeal. But Williams is believed to be the only one – perhaps one of two – still held under the defunct law.

He can request release internally through the Center for Forensic Psychiatry, but that hasn’t happened. He also has an annual right to seek a trial in Allegan County Circuit Court for release. He gave that up in the mid-1990s. Judge George Corsiglia repeatedly rejected his requests.

Now, Corsiglia has retired. Williams has filed a petition for discharge from his civil commitment to a psychiatric hospital. He is hoping that Judge Kevin Cronin will grant him a jury trial to determine if he has recovered and should be released.

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• Court keeps killer confined

Ann Arbor attorney John Shea represented Williams for many years. Williams has done everything he was supposed to do while in custody. He’s undergone treatment for decades. Therapists say he isn’t a danger, advocates say.

But then there are those two little girls he killed.

“The crimes are heinous,” Shea said.

"The Center for Forensic Psychiatry is pretty conservative in terms of their release decisions. The more serious the crime, the more conservative they are," Shea said.

"In a sense, they don't want to let him out and look in the newspaper to see he's done something."

Defense attorney Robert Champion, a former Allegan County prosecutor, recognizes the horror of his client’s crimes.

But, he said, his client’s continued confinement goes against provisions of the law holding him. He said that a Dec. 4, 2013, psychiatric report showed that treatment was successful.

He also noted that his client was granted leaves in the early 1990s by the state Department of Community Health which allowed for home visits, for hours or days at a time, and visits to shopping malls in Grand Rapids and Ann Arbor.

“He’s recovered and no longer a threat to society,” Champion said.

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Allegan County Prosecutor Fred Anderson disagrees. He says his office will oppose Williams’ release.

Williams killed Laura Jo Sutliffe, 13, of Sparta, after kidnapping her at knifepoint from in front of her Sparta home in June 1966. About 15 months later, he killed 7-year-old Sonya Santa Cruz after she was told to return home from Stocking Elementary School to retrieve a book.

Her body showed up three weeks later in a shallow grave just outside of Wayland. Williams, a house painter, inadvertently left his estimate book with school papers he put under her body.

State police detective Robert Golm showed up at his mother’s house. After an interview, Golm asked Williams if he could clear up any other crimes.

“Yeah, I got the girl from Sparta.”

He led police to her body in Newaygo County.

Williams pleaded guilty to first-degree murder in Allegan County in Sonya’s killing.

Before sentencing, he was designated a criminal-sexual psychopath and committed indefinitely to the Ionia State Hospital. The criminal sexual-psychopath law was soon repealed, in 1968. Williams was held until 1973 when he and 1,200 others were simply released.

Golm was beside himself. He badgered West Michigan prosecutors.

Williams was free for three months before Allegan County prosecutors charged him again. He pleaded guilty to second-degree murder in Sonya’s death, and was sentenced to life in prison. The state Supreme Court, however, tossed the conviction and ordered Williams held under the defunct psychopath statute.

In Newaygo County, then-Prosecutor Douglas Springstead brought charges in Laura Jo’s death, charges that were quietly dropped after Springstead left office. He reportedly fought pressure from a judge to drop charges and avoid trial costs.

Champion, the defense attorney, wrote in his petition that Williams’ treatment has been successful. He has taken responsibility for his actions.

He said Williams should be released based on the 2013 psychiatric report, his history and decades of treatment. The “report indicates that he has not been active in any known sexual deviant behaviors since his original charges.”’

If Williams had served his life term for second-degree murder, he would certainly have been paroled by now. Back then, those serving life for second-degree murder were usually out within 20 years.

“That’s exactly it,” Champion said. “If he had been convicted of murder 2, he’d have been released.”

Williams, in a 2008 interview with The Press, said he wasn’t the same man he was when he killed the girls. He said he thinks about them every day.

“The two little girls, you know, they never hurt anybody. I’d do anything in the world if I could bring them back. It’s a terrible case, no two ways about it.”

Golm, the retired detective, said Williams once told him that his arrest would prevent the deaths of other young girls.

He scoffed at the idea Williams is cured, or no longer a danger.

“They just never change. Williams will do it again.”

John Agar covers crime for MLive/Grand Rapids Press E-mail John Agar: jagar@mlive.com and follow him on Twitter at twitter.com/ReporterJAgar