No parole for Susan Atkins

The vote was unanimously against her. She was at the hearing, rolled into the room on a bed, and she slept through most of the proceedings, after she read Psalm 23 as her statement.

Hat Tip: Many thanks, JUNGLE JIM!

Convicted murderer and former Charles Manson family member, Susan Atkins is seen asleep in a moveable bed during her parole hearing Wednesday, Sept. 2, 2009, at the Central California Women's Facility in Chowchilla, Calif. (AP Photo/Ben Margot/POOL)

Comments

[Pat, Sues boy]

Funny how fate plays tricks on us......that way.

[ghost]

She dodged the death once. Life in prison means LIFE IN PRISON. This is as it should be. I hope when she dies...all her victims are there to meet her. Then she can beg for their forgiveness in person. It will be up to them and God to pardon her.

[o]

gimme a break she was a messed up teenager who made horrible decisions. Now people refuse to let her die at home with her husband. I thought people were supposed to forgive. (NOT forget, but forgive). She is a very old and dying woman who will never hurt anyone again. Foe the love of God, set her free....

[Amy Hubbs]

I think it is pathetic in this day, age and present state of the economy that we can deny Susan Atkins "mercy" now. Shame on our disgusting governer for denying a dying woman who has paid more than her share for committing "horrific" crimes 40 years ago her chance to die at home in the arms of the people who love her; a woman who has now found God and has tried desperately to forgive and be forgiven. Meantime, Phillip Garrido was released 40 YEARS EARLY from a 50 year sentence for abduction and rape, only to kidnap,rape, impregnate and wrongfully imprison a tender aged Jacyee Dugaard and God knows how many others. Shame on anyone who feels that the state should pay (Governer Idiotstick) for Susan Atkins to die in a hospital at our expense, when she poses NO THREAT TO SOCIETY,while they make decisions to let criminals like Garrido free.

[Steve]

Well America, you have your pound of flesh.
What on earth is the reasoning behind her continued imprisonment?

[Cindy]

That people like this never get released is a standard necessary in our justice system to show others good reason why they need to stop and consider before they do such acts. I am willing to bet if any one who is asking for her release were one of the family members of those who were so inhumanely and violently massacred they would not be singing the same tune.

[Shirley Hall]

Shame on all of you who state that Susan Atkins "can never hurt anyone again" or that she has paid her debt to society. Both statements are dead wrong. The family members of her victims are still tormented and every time any one of the Manson family members is up for parole all those painful memories are revisited. She viciously murdered and "had no mercy for" - Susan's own words to the terrified and very pregnant Sharon Tate - just before she repeatedly plunged the knife into her - several innocent people. She was sentenced to LIFE IN PRISON....that means until she's dead. So be it.

[DOH!]

Wow Amy, where to begin. The Govenator did not release Garrido, nor did he deny Atkins parole. You know it is better to keep quiet and appear foolish than to open your mouth and remove all doubt.

[Diane Nash]

I completely agree with Cindy. You couldn't have said it any better. What kind of evil, sick soul has no mercy on a woman eight months pregnant & pleading for the life of her baby? Just look at the disgusting old woman above, that's who. She may have pleaded for forgiveness & read a Bible verse during her parole hearing but it still doesn't bring back a life. The dead are still dead in their grave. One day, Mrs. Atkins will be dead in prison, right where she belongs.

[Fraser]

How do the people who want "mercy" for this woman feel about Scotland's having released the Lockerby bomber?

[LKM]

Compassionate release?? What compassion did she show Sharon Tate who pleaded to spare her unborn child? She should die in prison

[Hazel]

It is hard to believe people like Susan Atkins are part of the human race. It is as if though "people" like this are from another planet. I feel nothing but disgust that these beings are called 'human'.

There are millions of messed up teenagers that do not get involved with ghouls like Manson and go around stabbing people to death let alone pregnant women over 40 times!!! You call that a human being? Or a monster from hell?

[Hazel]

OOPS! Correction... not 40 times but stabbed 16 times while Sharon Tate BEGGED for her life and her unborn child...

[Thinking of Sharon]

I think that Sadie (Charlie's nickname for that sick murderess) should be able to die in her families arms, after Sharon Tate, and the other victims have that luxury. This sick old woman once took delight in brutally and visciously murdering an 8 1/2 month pregnant woman, who pleaded for her babies life. This old cancer ridden criminal laughed in Sharon's face and delighted in killing her, even considering, for a moment, if she should cut that little baby boy out. After she stabbed Sharon more times than it takes to kill anyone, she tasted her blood. Susan Atkins deserves to pay the price for her crimes and die in prison. She got the death sentence once, she was pardoned then, when they revoked that sentence. Good night sweet Sadie, maybe God can forgive you.

[Hazel]

Sharon Tate

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3295/2672259577_30c6e395b7_o.jpg

[Robert Childers]

First, Atkins was not a teenager. She was a 22 year old young lady with a visceral hatred for authority and affluent people. I was exactly the same age at the time and I was a Sgt in the Air Force in charge of maintaining a stockpile of Nuclear Bombs. She was sentenced to death at the time and it was a travesty of justice that the supreme court got cold feet and allowed people like her to carry on an existence in prison and build a life for herself while her victims rotted in their graves. She is finally getting the death penalty now that she deserved then.

[Danny]

the woman is right where she belongs. the families of her victims are the only ones that deserve any consideration. atkins removed herself from society 38 years ago and should have received death sentence then. thumbs up to parole board.

[claire kaminski]

Anyone who knows anything about Christianity knows Jesus died for ALL sins, not just certain ones. No one is excusing her or what she has done. But just like the 9/11 hijackers or people who followed Hitler, people can be brainwashed to do terrible things. Only God knows if she and the other Manson followers are truly repentant and remorseful, so only God should judge her.

[Kathy Reinig]

Okay...this is f'in ridiculous....why should she have to die in jail...i think that the state of cal. is retarded for not letting her out....she found God after being in prison for so long for being under the control of such a powerful person Charles Manson(which if you were under Manson there would be no f'in way dat u wouldnt listen to him)and like she would murder anyone now...gosh u ppl are dumb!!!! If u are a true beilever in God, and you think she should die in prison, u are a lier and u are not a TRUE beilever...God teaches us to FORGIVE!!!so y dont u just read ur bible a little better before u respond to dis!!!!

[B Troid]

I think we need to ask Sharon Tate what she thinks about granting her parole.

Sharon? Sharon? Hello? Any comment?

I'll take that as a "no".

[Stacy]

Susan Atkins is lucky she didn't die years ago in the gas chamber. That would have been my wish for this creepy fiend. Let her die alone and in pain. What is wrong with those who feel sorry for her now? You're as sick as she is. She was spared death to finish our her debt by serving life. Her life is almost over and she will die in prison as she should. Those who have sympathy for her now make me wish her more pain in her remaining hours, The slobbering bleeding hearts weren't there to watch her slice up innocent people. You have no idea what kind of demented beast is sitting under that knit cap. May she die a slow and painful death.

[DAVID]

JUST REMEMBER. WE CAN COMMENT BUT IT IS NOT OUR PLACE TO JUDGE. WE ALL HAVE OUR OWN DAY FOR THAT. SHE WAS GUILTY AND SHE WAS PUNISHED. SHE DID MORE TIME THAN ANYONE FOR THE SAME CRIME AND STILL IT WAS NOT ENOUGH FOR YOU? SHE HAS DONE MORE VOLUNTEER WORK THAN MOST TO MAKE UP FOR HER MISTAKES. IT DIDN'T MAKE THINGS RIGHT BUT MANSON STILL SITS WITH THE SAME MINDSET AS THE DAY HE ARRIVED IN PRISON. EVERY LIFE IS PRECIOUS NO QUESTION BUT IS ONE LIFE MORE IMPORTANT THAN ANOTHER?

[tim]

Hey, I got an idea....send her to Libya for oil !!!!

[B]

Sharon asked Susan for mercy and didn't get it, why should Susan? I'm sorry that she's now dying in prison but isn't that the point of serving a life sentence? Sharon did not get to die in her family's arms.

[Gary]

In response to Danny
God can judge her when He get her.
Right now she's our, and butt stays
put
Gas chamber would have been too
easy

[Gary]

OOOPS Not Danny In response to Claire
Kaminski
(see above)

[Tracy]

in response to claire...people who live in glass houses should not throw stones!!!! in fact susan atkins was a young woman who was UNDER manson's control, but what about linda kasabian who was also there and did NOT participate?!?! everyone has freedom of choice and susan chose WRONG and now has to suffer the consequence. and to those that want to talk about the bible...did you forget THOU SHALL NOT KILL???

[rat]

Dosen't anybody read anymore? Charles'Tex'Watson killed Sharon Tate. Susan Atkins didn't.

[Thinking of Sharon]

Rat, don't you read? Susan admitted to stabbing Sharon during her trial. She testified that she stabbed Sharon because she was "sick of listening to her, pleading and begging, begging and pleading." I for one am sick of listening to Susan pleading and begging to get out of prison. Susan is also the one that told Sharon that she had "no mercy for her" as Sharon pleaded with this cold hearted killer to spare her baby. Then as Sharon lay dying, bleeding to death alone, you know not in her family's arms, Susan tasted Sharon's blood and took a towel and soaked up Sharon's blood with it and wrote Pig on the front door. Did you know that Sharon's baby had no knife wounds and would have lived if Sharon would have been found soon enough, but instead this reformed dolt, pleading for her life, left Sharon there, and the baby lived for hours inside his mother before he too perished. Nice dear sweet Sadie. God can forgive her if he sees fit. She needs to die, alone, in prison.

[Tom]

First of all, Susan Atkins did not stab Sharon Tate, what she did was hold her down while Charles "Tex" Watson did the killing, she did say the things she did, but she didn't stab anybody that night, it was Watson and Krenwinkel who did the actual stabbing at the tate residence. Atkins knife was found at the scene and did not have any blood on it and Watson in his book "will you kill for me" admitted Susan didn't do it and that it was he who stabbed her. Should she be let out is a indivdual opinion, but get the facts straight. She and tex both admitted the testimony, like the jail house confession Susan told the two women wasn't the true story. Krenwinkel said Charlie was orchestrating what they should say in the court room.

[Thinking of Sharon]

So, holding someone down while they are being slaughtered is ok, then? Is that what you are saying Tom? I wouldn't use Tex Watson's to line a bird cage, sorry, I don't really trust him. Also, that proves nothing that sweet Sadie's knife was found at the scene with no blood. You don't think it's possible that Tex didn't hand the knife to Sadie so she could plunge it into a pregnant woman a few times herself. Come on. Rosemary Labianca was stabbed numerous times after she died by more than one person.

[Matt]

It seems so easy to judge. I wander where I would have ended up but for the grace of fate. Just a quick check of a person's upbringing and history quickly shows the dreadful hand some people are dealt. How lucky so many people are to have avoided life's pit falls and be able to sit comfortably and judge others less fortunate. What happened to 'turn the other cheek' and forgiveness. She will die with grace and many peoples forgiveness where ever she may be.

[Ian]

Some of the commentators here sound as sick vindictive and vicious as the Manson family were back in 1969 - and yet they probably can't see it.

[Thinking of Sharon]

I agree Ian, it's pretty sick to think that some people can say and think that what Susan did was not that bad and that she deserves to be free. She got a life sentence for her crimes, let her spend her life in prison to pay for her crime.

Oh, and Matt, there are a lot of people in this world who have had less than easy lives who don't grow up to slaughter people they don't know. It's just an excuse for Susan.

[Ian]

I was thinking more along the lines of comments like this from above

"Let her die alone and in pain. What is wrong with those who feel sorry for her now? You're as sick as she is. She was spared death to finish our her debt by serving life. Her life is almost over and she will die in prison as she should. Those who have sympathy for her now make me wish her more pain in her remaining hours"

Does this quote sound worryingly similar to those expressed during the trial 40 years ago?

Believing she should be released on compassionate grounds does not equate to thinking what she did was 'not that bad'.

[Thinking of Sharon]

I am sorry, but I still think it is laughable to expect or ask for compassion when you had no compassion as you were slaughtering people. Did Sharon get any compassion from any of them? Abigail or Rosemary? The court system has ruled, she was given a death sentence that was revoked back to life in prision. That's life, not life until you are really sick and want to die at home. I sure Sharon and others would have liked to grow old, study, 'find God' and die in their families arms. They lost the ability to do that at the hands of a band of murderers on August 9 and 10, 1969. Now the murderes want compassion, that is just wrong. I don't wish Susan to die painfully, I just think she needs to die, alone, in prison, just like her victims died, alone, and imprisoned.

[Ian]

She was actually sentenced to life with the possibility of parole like all the other family members. She satisfies all the criteria necessary to be recommended for parole. It is the sensationalism surrounding the case that has kept her and the other women involved incarcerated. It has become a political rather than a legal issue. Nobody wants to take the decision to release one of the Manson murderers. The perpetrators of many equally heinous crimes have come and gone in the period she has been imprisoned. Where is the consistency?

Do you believe that the State is entitled to subject an offender to the same degree of malice as was evidenced during their crime? That is the rule of law in states such as Iran – not the civilised world.

Wishing her to die alone and in pain as others have suggested is nothing to do with justice or even revenge (they have no personal link to this case) – it is simply to satisfy their own malice.

[Laura]

Umm... I have my Charles Manson history down pretty pat... I believe Susan Adkins told Sharon Tate.... "Don't beg me for mercy bitch." There was more but that about covers it. What was that Susan? Did you give her the chance to read from her bible? hmmmm I thought not....

[Ana]

Nobody have to feel mercy for this monster, this is her 13th parole, she got 13 oportunities to get out, what about sharon, jay, abigail, parent,la biancas, they didnt have any oportunity, she showed no mercy to sharon when she begged for her and babys liven is this fear? I think she should die in prision in the most painfull way. What goes around comes aroun bitch!

[Thinking of Sharon]

Hey, Ian, when are

Sharon Tate
Jay Sebring
Wojciech Frykowski
Abigail Folger
Steven Parent
Rosemary LaBianca
Leno LaBianca
Paul Richard Polanski
Gary Hinman

elible for parole? Hmm? When are their families eligible for parole from the hell that they have been living in for 40 years?

Just curious.

[Thinking of Sharon]

Oh and by the way, Susan's exact words to Sharon, after Sharon pleaded for her and her babies life, and right before they slaughtered her were..

"Look, bitch, I don't care a thing about you. You're going to die and there's nothing you can do about it."

Pretty nice sentiment, eh? Something anyone could feel compassionate about?

Of course that was right about the time that Tex slashed Sharon's face with a knife because she was so beautiful. You don't hear a lot about that, but as depraved as it was, it did happen. Very nice people we're dealing with here, huh?

Compassionate release, um, no thanks.

[Chuck]

Many say that Atkins just stabbed Sharon Tate to death. Not true. First she and her evil friends buthered all of Sharon's friends in front of her. (took a half hour) Then, after Atkins said "bitch, I have no mercy." Wonderful Mr. Watson kneeled in front of her and slashed Sharon's face with a bayonet. Then she was stabbed while yelling for her mother. This was a torture / murder case. No parole for these animals

[Eliza]

The victims of the murders were not allowed to 'die at home in the arms of people who loved them'. Why should the murderers suffer a better fate? Not sentencing these people to death in the first place was compassionate enough, I'd say.

That's great she was able to read the bible 5,000 times while she sat in jail for 40 years and become aware of God. But if we were to vote for Jesus or Barabas to go to the cross in ths day and age, wouldn't YOU vote for the murderer?