Release denied for dying Manson follower

[LTR]

Source: Associated Press

SACRAMENTO, Calif. - A follower of Charles Manson who stabbed pregnant actress Sharon Tate to death nearly 40 years ago but is dying of brain cancer in a California prison was denied compassionate release Tuesday.

The California Board of Parole released its unanimous decision on the release of Susan Atkins hours after a 90-minute hearing, during which it heard impassioned pleas from both sides.

"Obviously, it was too hot of a potato for them to handle," said one of Atkins' attorney, Eric P. Lampel. "Of course we're disappointed. There's no basis for denying this."

Lampel filed a motion July 10 with Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge David Wesley asking for his client's release no matter what the parole board recommended. No hearing has been set, Lampel said after the hearing.

Read more: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080716/ap_on_re_us/manson_follower

[Drunken Irishman]

1. Did she show compassion for Sharon Tate?

[GOPNotForMe]

2. Compassion is usually NOT about what someone deserves.

It's not really compassion to give someone exactly what you think she deserves, no?

[RedShoes]

6. While I understand your higher minded pov, I'm just not that fancy. We showed her compassion when

her sentence was commuted from death to life with no parole.

[tularetom]

3. The words "Manson follower" alone are enough to ensure

that she will never leave prison.

[alcibiades_mystery]

5. If she got the same consideration as any other inmate in her category

Then I'm satisfied.

I suspect, of course, that she didn't. Official decision by media spectacle, as per usual.

[depakid]

4. "medical treatment has cost state taxpayers more than $1.4 million since March"

[awoke_in_2003]

11. How would releasing her help that?

Ain't gonna be easy to get a job and insurance being a manson follower and having known medical condition. She would probably have to go on Medicair/aid (i always confuse them). So taxpayers would still be paying.

[depakid]

16. Care would be the responsibility of relatives

and provisions for that sgould be included in the petition.

It's part of a much larger (and much more expensive) issue.

See: Aging inmates add to prison strain in California

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2008/07/05/state/n090037D66.DTL&tsp=1

"Caring for a severely disabled inmate can cost the state $1 million a year or more, said state Sen. Mike Machado, D-Linden, chairman of a subcommittee that oversees prison spending."

[clspector]

7. Good.

She was given life without possibility of parole. (Actually, her death sentence was commuted to life in prison after CA changed its death penalty law.)

She lived how many more years longer than her victims? Sorry, color me utterly unmoved by her situation. She's a sociopath who has no business on the street and I don't give a crap how sick she is.

There are some crimes so vile and sickening that no amount of time will erase them. Susan Atkins doesn't deserve compassion. She deserves to die in prison. To let her out because she's sick now makes a mockery of her victims' deaths.

[Baby Snooks]

8. Appalling

How can anyone truly believe she deserves compassion? Sharon Tate sat there on her living room floor as she watched people she loved being brutally murdered and realized she was next and then realized her unborn child would die as well and begged Susan Atkins to spare her to spare her child. Was she shown compassion?

According to the reports Susan Atkins has three months to live. I hope she lives for another three years. I hope her body literally rots from the cancer. She is a monster. As is anyone who would believe she deserves compassion.

Forgive her. But don't forget what she did. And that is probably what Sharon Tate's mother would say.

[evilkumquat]

9. Some Family Members of Manson's Victims in Favor of Parole

One or two of the Labianca kids have testified for clemency in at least one of the killers' hearings (Leslie Van Houten's, I think).

If all convicted murderers sentenced to "life" in prison would, indeed, actually SPEND all their lives in prison, then I would say let her rot. What bothers me is that it is likely there are plenty of killers walking the streets in California that "served their time" after being convicted of crimes at least as horrific as those perpetrated by the Manson Family.

The sheer brutality of their crimes notwithstanding, I think what sets the Manson killers so far apart in society's ladder of evil is that the victims were part of the Hollywood elite (million-dollar hairdresser, famous director's wife, coffee heiress).

Is it such a huge stretch to suggest that, had the Manson victims been "regular" people or the usual victims, prostitutes, their crimes would not have been considered so horrific, their infamy would not have lived on these forty years and more of them would have been released by now than just Clem?

And if this is true, does that make the Manson Family members remotely "political prisoners", as nauseating as that sounds?

[clspector]

10. uhm . . .

Leo and Rosemary LaBianca weren't Hollywood elites. Neither was Steve Parent. Or Gary Hinman. And Susan Atkins was involved in murders prior to and after the Tate killings.

I don't buy that "political prisoner" bullshit for one instant.

The reason they went after the celebrities is that they WANTED the notoriety. That was their goal. They succeeded far beyond their dreams. But they didn't just want to terrorize celebrities. Their stated goal was to start a race war. Do you seriously think that it was a race war between celebrities?

No, Manson was a celebrity wannabe who had no talent and lashed out at the group of people he most wanted to belong to when they rejected him. And Susan Atkins was his willing handmaiden in these vile acts.

Do I think there are murderers who are freed in country when they should be kept in jail? Of course. And just as those people shouldn't go free, neither should Susan Atkins.

Does the high profile of her case work against her? Yes. Does that ameliorate her crimes? No.

[ForrestGump]

13. Also, those kinds of murders were not a regular occurrence in 1969,

even in the United States of Violence. The celebrity aspect of it (and the whole psycho-'hippie' thing, with Manson a media-perfect megalomaniacal prophet-wackjob with crazy eyes) perhaps played a role, but the murders were probably more shocking then than they would be now.

Now a similar crime would probably end up buried on page 73 (well, yeah, unless it involved a public figure of some kind).

[Baby Snooks]

12. But they were who they were...

The reality is they were who were they were and their being who they were made what happened that night all the more terrifying to an entire city. Until the arrests were made, quite a few lived in fear. No one knew why the victims had been targeted. Quite a few wondered if they were next.

Interesting that you pointed out the paradox of victims. Pillars of the community versus pariahs of the community.

People have forgotten that there were some who wondered initially, including LAPD, if it had been related to drugs. Quite a few drugs were found at the house and in Jay Sebring's car. Even after the tie to the La Biancas, who were just "normal people" in every sense of the word, was made some still wondered. They wondered about the dark side of Hollywood that no one talked about then or talks about now.

Particularly after the testimony of the landlord who testified that he had seen Charles Manson at the house talking to Sharon Tate at the pool. Did she know him? Why was he there? And why would he send people up there to murder her knowing she was pregnant? There will always be quite a few questions that probably will never have answers.

The victims were "guilty victims" to some. Simply because of their lifestyle. They were both pillars and pariahs in a way.

I read somewhere once that Doris Day had been in her pool swimming when the news came over the radio. She recognized the address. Her son had lived there. For a split second, she froze with fear until she realized he no longer lived there. She was not the only one who felt fear. Many who lived in Benedict Canyon heard the gunshots, heard the screams. And had no idea where they were coming from. The police had no idea either. No one knew until the following morning when the maid arrived for work. Everyone froze with fear. It just wasn't an address that anyone would expect such brutal murders to happen.

All anyone remembers, or should remember, is the testimony of Susan Atkins and that suffices to refuse her any compassion and suffices to refuse her a release under any circumstances. Regardless of who the victim was. All anyone remembers is a mother begging Susan Atkins to spare her to spare her child. Nothing could be more horrific.

Not everyone who is released from prison should be. Their having been released from prison is not reason to release everyone else. Certainly not the Manson family. None of them should have been released.

[Patchuli]

14. No, they are where they are because of what they did

and that would have been covered by the media back then, regardless of station in life. It was that horrific.

The Labiancas were just well to do Los Angeleans. And they too were murdered horribly for no reason. I got a real estate tour through that home once. The street number had to be changed due to the notoriety. It is a gorgeous house but I swear you can feel the terror, the sadness and the horror of what happened there. The Mansons deserve nothing more than they gave to their victims. Let them rot...

[meowomon]

15. Good

May she rot in prison. I have no compassion for anyone who could do the things she did. There is one though who allegedly did not kill anyone. I may be able to have a little compassion for her. Leslie Van Houten. Life without parole should mean life without parole. I know that isn't what she has, but if you don't have the death penalty, there should be absolutely no parole. Our system is not set up for redemption.

[orleans]

17. good. n/t

[Toucano]

18. Bush and Condi? Manson and Atkins?

Justice can be tricky.

For what she actually did at the crimes, Atkins would have likely been released long ago but for the sensational media treatment of the crimes. That doesn't seem quite fair.

Bush and Condi are still walking around and living large and they have killed millions of people. That doesn't seem quite fair.

Manson also liked to give people nicknames, just like Bush.



But in the end, I won't shed a tear or worry about Atkins. Tragic life, tragic deaths. But there are bigger tragedies to be concerned with.

[tidy_bowl]

19. Die Bitch. nt