A healing confrontation

Patty O’Reilly puts the finishing touches on a family photo album of her dead husband Danny O’Reilly shortly before meeting his killer, William Michael Albertson, in a Folsom, California, prison.  (Robert Durell / LAT)

William Michael Albertson sits in a Folsom prison cell, meeting the widow of the man that he killed.  (Robert Durell / LAT)

As part of a new program of restorative justice, Patty O’Reilly, back to camera meets face-to-face with the man, William Michael Albertson, left, who killed her husband more than two years ago. On the right is Rochelle Edwards who was working for the state’s Office of Victim Survivor Services.  (Robert Durell / LAT)

Albertson, an inmate at California State Prison, Sacramento, in Folsom, looks through the photo album. His feelings in the aftermath, he confides, are “up and down and sideways.”  (Robert Durell / LAT)

Patty O’Reilly confronts her husband’s killer -- physically and emotionally. She says that she drew strength from watching her husband’s killer sit at that table and witness the devastation he caused.  (Robert Durell / LAT)

O’Reilly, left (in red), holds hands in a circle with Albertson, right. He feels uplifted by O’Reilly’s willingness to meet him, and calls her forgiveness ”an incredible, humbling gift.” She’s accompanied by her sister Mary Eble (on O’Reilly’s left), and the meeting’s facilitator, Rochelle Edwards, bottom.  (Robert Durell / LAT)