Dennis Rader chose to plead guilty rather than go through a trial which he said would only end in his guilt. One wonders if he did this just to have the opportunity to regale an audience with his exploits, though, since he really seemed to enjoy himself, and even corrected the judge at times.

I think that the son of his last victim, Jeff Davis, described the performance best:

"It struck me as if he was giving us a lecture in serial murder 101, because he's not human and has no soul or conscience...He's up there kind of cavalierly describing how he had his 'hit kit' with him and how his 'projects' were proceeding."

Rader can not be sentenced to death, because Kansas did not reinstate the death penalty until 3 years after his last known murder. The District Attorney hopes he will receive a full life sentence for each case, served consecutively.

If the District Attorney gets her wish, Dennis Rader's sentence will be 175 years to life.