Susan Atkins (Manson family) Parole Hearing Today - Sitcoms Online Message Boards

Liza · 09-02-2009, 05:45 PM

From CNN.com:

---

A former "Manson family" member who stabbed actress Sharon Tate to death more than 40 years ago and is now terminally ill faces her 13th parole hearing on Wednesday.

However, despite her declining health and an impressive prison record, Whitehouse wrote, "there is still a very real chance the Parole Board will nonetheless insist her release would be a danger to society."

The hearing will be held at the Central California Women's Facility at Chowchilla, California, said Terry Thornton, spokeswoman for the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation. Atkins was moved to the Chowchilla facility from the California Institution for Women at Frontera last year because of her illness. Watch Linda Kasabian describe the murders »

"Last we heard, she is expected to attend," Thornton said Tuesday of Atkins. The proceeding is scheduled to be held in a hearing room, but depending on Atkins' condition, it could be held at her bedside, Thornton said. The panel is expected to render its decision following the hearing after deliberating behind closed doors, she said.

Atkins -- California's longest-serving female inmate -- has been denied parole 12 times previously, Thornton said.

She was 21 when she and other followers of Charles Manson participated in a two-night rampage that left seven people dead and terrorized the city of Los Angeles in August 1969. She and the others -- Manson, Leslie Van Houten, Patricia Krenwinkel and Charles "Tex" Watson -- were initially sentenced to death in the slayings of five people, including Tate, and two additional deaths the following night.

Their sentences were automatically commuted to life in prison when the Supreme Court struck down the nation's death penalty laws in 1972.

By her own admission, Atkins held Tate down as she pleaded for mercy, and stabbed the actress, who was eight months pregnant, 16 times. In a 1993 parole board hearing, Atkins said Tate "asked me to let her baby live. ... I told her I didn't have any mercy on her."

After killing Tate, according to historical accounts of the murders, Atkins scrawled the word "pig" in blood on the door of the home Tate shared with her husband, director Roman Polanski. Polanski was not home at the time, but three of Tate's houseguests were also slain by the killers, as was a teenager who was visiting the home's caretaker in his nearby cottage.

If the panel decides to grant Atkins parole -- called a "tentative suitability finding" -- the decision is subject to a 120-day review process by the California Board of Parole Hearings, Thornton said. If it still stands, the matter then goes to the governor's office. The governor's options include allowing the decision to stand, actively approving it, modifying it or reversing it, according to the Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation's Web site.

However, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has previously opposed Atkins' request for compassionate release -- a request made by terminally ill patients wishing to be released before death. The Board of Parole Hearings unanimously denied that request in July 2008. It was also opposed by Debra Tate, Sharon Tate's sister.

If parole is not granted, another hearing will be set in three, five, seven, 10 or 15 years, at the discretion of the panel, Thornton said.

Atkins has been described as a model prisoner who has accepted responsibility for her role in the slayings and now shuns Manson.

But Debra Tate told CNN in an e-mail in March she does not believe any Manson family member convicted of murder should ever be set free, saying the slayings were "so vicious, so inhumane, so depraved, that there is no turning back."

"The 'Manson Family' murderers are sociopaths, and from that, they can never be rehabilitated," Debra Tate said. "They should all stay right where they are -- in prison -- until they die. There will never be true justice for my sister Sharon and the other victims of the 'Manson Family.' Keeping the murderers in prison is the least we, as a society who values justice, can do."

In a manuscript posted on her Web site, Atkins, who was known within the Manson family as Sadie Mae Glutz, wrote that "this is the past I have to live with, and I have to live with it every day."

"Unlike the reader, or the people who seem to think Charles Manson was cool, I can't think about it for an hour or so and then go on with my life. Just like the families and friends of the victims, this is with me every day. I have to wake up every day with this and no matter what I do for the rest of my life and no matter how much I give back to the community I will never be able to replace what my crime took away. And that's not 'neat,' and that's not 'cool.'"

Atkins' brain cancer was diagnosed in March 2008, Whitehouse wrote on his Web site. On May 15, doctors predicted she would live less than six months. But she passed that deadline, he wrote, and celebrated her 21st wedding anniversary on December 7.

---

http://www.cnn.com/2009/CRIME/09/01/...ins/index.html

Liza · 09-02-2009, 05:50 PM

While I don't buy that she's any threat to society, I'm hoping this will be unlucky number 13 for her, and she dies in prison. She doesn't deserve to die a free woman.

Chocoholic · 09-02-2009, 05:56 PM

Show her the same level of mercy she showed to her victims. Let her suffer and die in prison. They shouldn't even be wasting medication on people like her.

MickeyMac · 09-02-2009, 06:07 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Chocoholic

Show her the same level of mercy she showed to her victims. Let her suffer and die in prison. They shouldn't even be wasting medication on people like her.

RIGHT ON!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Let her rot.

browneyes106 · 09-02-2009, 06:42 PM

They should let her die in prison. She will probably get rejected with this hearing. It does seem and that her and Charles Watson have been rehablitated some.

Liza · 09-02-2009, 08:48 PM

^ I believe Tex Watson is truly sorry and has been somewhat rehabilitated. Leslie Van Houten is another one whose remorse I count as genuine. I have trouble believing anything Susan Atkins says. She seems to be a lot like Manson in the manipulator category - she'll say anything to get herself out.

Liza · 09-02-2009, 08:50 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Chocoholic

Show her the same level of mercy she showed to her victims. Let her suffer and die in prison. They shouldn't even be wasting medication on people like her.

The people of California have spent over a million dollars in her cancer treatments. How is that right?

Chocoholic · 09-02-2009, 08:50 PM

I really don't think cold-blooded killers like these deserve a second chance, no matter how sorry they feel. It doesn't bring the murder victims back.

Chocoholic · 09-02-2009, 08:52 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Liza

The people of California have spent over a million dollars in her cancer treatments. How is that right?

Exactly! They should save a little money and deny these monsters any treatment.

catlover79 · 09-02-2009, 10:38 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Chocoholic

I really don't think cold-blooded killers like these deserve a second chance, no matter how sorry they feel. It doesn't bring the murder victims back.

Exactly.

Liza · 09-02-2009, 10:55 PM

Apparently the hearing is still going on. They say it can last up to seven hours (it's been four so far). Well, I'm going to bed, but we'll find out tomorrow.

She's not going anywhere.

LuLu Rogers · 09-02-2009, 10:58 PM

No Way, she has to suffer for what she did.

dawsongirl · 09-02-2009, 11:13 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Chocoholic

Show her the same level of mercy she showed to her victims. Let her suffer and die in prison. They shouldn't even be wasting medication on people like her.

I agree.

catlover79 · 09-02-2009, 11:26 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Liza

Apparently the hearing is still going on. They say it can last up to seven hours (it's been four so far). Well, I'm going to bed, but we'll find out tomorrow.

She's not going anywhere.

We can only hope.

MoonMan · 09-03-2009, 04:33 AM

FREE CHARLES MANSON! FREE CHARLES MANSON!

View Poll Results: Should Susan Atkins be released?
Yeah, she's served her time.	0	0%
No! Don't you know what she did?	13	92.86%
Not quite sure...	0	0%
Susan who?	1	7.14%
Voters: 14. You may not vote on this poll

09-02-2009, 05:45 PM	#1
Liza BestYearsofOurLives Forum Veteran Join Date: Apr 24, 2001 Location: Rochester, NY Posts: 6,537	Susan Atkins (Manson family) Parole Hearing Today From CNN.com: --- A former "Manson family" member who stabbed actress Sharon Tate to death more than 40 years ago and is now terminally ill faces her 13th parole hearing on Wednesday. However, despite her declining health and an impressive prison record, Whitehouse wrote, "there is still a very real chance the Parole Board will nonetheless insist her release would be a danger to society." The hearing will be held at the Central California Women's Facility at Chowchilla, California, said Terry Thornton, spokeswoman for the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation. Atkins was moved to the Chowchilla facility from the California Institution for Women at Frontera last year because of her illness. Watch Linda Kasabian describe the murders » "Last we heard, she is expected to attend," Thornton said Tuesday of Atkins. The proceeding is scheduled to be held in a hearing room, but depending on Atkins' condition, it could be held at her bedside, Thornton said. The panel is expected to render its decision following the hearing after deliberating behind closed doors, she said. Atkins -- California's longest-serving female inmate -- has been denied parole 12 times previously, Thornton said. She was 21 when she and other followers of Charles Manson participated in a two-night rampage that left seven people dead and terrorized the city of Los Angeles in August 1969. She and the others -- Manson, Leslie Van Houten, Patricia Krenwinkel and Charles "Tex" Watson -- were initially sentenced to death in the slayings of five people, including Tate, and two additional deaths the following night. Their sentences were automatically commuted to life in prison when the Supreme Court struck down the nation's death penalty laws in 1972. By her own admission, Atkins held Tate down as she pleaded for mercy, and stabbed the actress, who was eight months pregnant, 16 times. In a 1993 parole board hearing, Atkins said Tate "asked me to let her baby live. ... I told her I didn't have any mercy on her." After killing Tate, according to historical accounts of the murders, Atkins scrawled the word "pig" in blood on the door of the home Tate shared with her husband, director Roman Polanski. Polanski was not home at the time, but three of Tate's houseguests were also slain by the killers, as was a teenager who was visiting the home's caretaker in his nearby cottage. If the panel decides to grant Atkins parole -- called a "tentative suitability finding" -- the decision is subject to a 120-day review process by the California Board of Parole Hearings, Thornton said. If it still stands, the matter then goes to the governor's office. The governor's options include allowing the decision to stand, actively approving it, modifying it or reversing it, according to the Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation's Web site. However, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has previously opposed Atkins' request for compassionate release -- a request made by terminally ill patients wishing to be released before death. The Board of Parole Hearings unanimously denied that request in July 2008. It was also opposed by Debra Tate, Sharon Tate's sister. If parole is not granted, another hearing will be set in three, five, seven, 10 or 15 years, at the discretion of the panel, Thornton said. Atkins has been described as a model prisoner who has accepted responsibility for her role in the slayings and now shuns Manson. But Debra Tate told CNN in an e-mail in March she does not believe any Manson family member convicted of murder should ever be set free, saying the slayings were "so vicious, so inhumane, so depraved, that there is no turning back." "The 'Manson Family' murderers are sociopaths, and from that, they can never be rehabilitated," Debra Tate said. "They should all stay right where they are -- in prison -- until they die. There will never be true justice for my sister Sharon and the other victims of the 'Manson Family.' Keeping the murderers in prison is the least we, as a society who values justice, can do." In a manuscript posted on her Web site, Atkins, who was known within the Manson family as Sadie Mae Glutz, wrote that "this is the past I have to live with, and I have to live with it every day." "Unlike the reader, or the people who seem to think Charles Manson was cool, I can't think about it for an hour or so and then go on with my life. Just like the families and friends of the victims, this is with me every day. I have to wake up every day with this and no matter what I do for the rest of my life and no matter how much I give back to the community I will never be able to replace what my crime took away. And that's not 'neat,' and that's not 'cool.'" Atkins' brain cancer was diagnosed in March 2008, Whitehouse wrote on his Web site. On May 15, doctors predicted she would live less than six months. But she passed that deadline, he wrote, and celebrated her 21st wedding anniversary on December 7. --- http://www.cnn.com/2009/CRIME/09/01/...ins/index.html

09-02-2009, 10:58 PM	#12
LuLu Rogers Colonel Brandon Forum Fanatic Join Date: Mar 23, 2004 Location: The Hogwarts Dungeons Posts: 11,013	No Way, she has to suffer for what she did.
	__________________ -Lauren- "I can teach you how to bewitch the mind and ensnare the senses. I can tell you how to bottle fame, brew glory, and even put a stopper in death."-Professor Severus Snape

09-02-2009, 05:50 PM	#2
Liza BestYearsofOurLives Forum Veteran Join Date: Apr 24, 2001 Location: Rochester, NY Posts: 6,537	While I don't buy that she's any threat to society, I'm hoping this will be unlucky number 13 for her, and she dies in prison. She doesn't deserve to die a free woman.

09-02-2009, 05:56 PM	#3
Chocoholic Member Forum Star Join Date: Dec 01, 2000 Location: Between a rock and a hard place. Posts: 11,235	Show her the same level of mercy she showed to her victims. Let her suffer and die in prison. They shouldn't even be wasting medication on people like her.

09-02-2009, 06:42 PM	#5
browneyes106 Member Forum Veteran Join Date: Apr 01, 2008 Posts: 6,094	They should let her die in prison. She will probably get rejected with this hearing. It does seem and that her and Charles Watson have been rehablitated some.

09-02-2009, 08:48 PM	#6
Liza BestYearsofOurLives Forum Veteran Join Date: Apr 24, 2001 Location: Rochester, NY Posts: 6,537	^ I believe Tex Watson is truly sorry and has been somewhat rehabilitated. Leslie Van Houten is another one whose remorse I count as genuine. I have trouble believing anything Susan Atkins says. She seems to be a lot like Manson in the manipulator category - she'll say anything to get herself out.

09-02-2009, 08:50 PM	#8
Chocoholic Member Forum Star Join Date: Dec 01, 2000 Location: Between a rock and a hard place. Posts: 11,235	I really don't think cold-blooded killers like these deserve a second chance, no matter how sorry they feel. It doesn't bring the murder victims back.

09-02-2009, 10:55 PM	#11
Liza BestYearsofOurLives Forum Veteran Join Date: Apr 24, 2001 Location: Rochester, NY Posts: 6,537	Apparently the hearing is still going on. They say it can last up to seven hours (it's been four so far). Well, I'm going to bed, but we'll find out tomorrow. She's not going anywhere.

09-03-2009, 04:33 AM	#15
MoonMan Banned Banned!! Forum Hawk Join Date: Sep 03, 2009 Location: vermont Posts: 4	FREE CHARLES MANSON! FREE CHARLES MANSON!