Monday, September 7, 2009

Parole is sometimes NOT an option



A very cogent article I found about the recent request for clemency on the behalf of Susan Atkins, the woman in the middle of the photo, one of the participants in the Manson murders.

Particularly chilling is the passage which reads:

"No doubt the board members recalled that in a 1993 parole hearing, Atkins acknowledged that when she had her own opportunity to grant clemency, she chose not to. Tate begged Atkins to spare her baby, to no avail."

The same should have gone for the release of the Lockerbie bomber.


When Compassion is Cruel
Justice demands that killers serve out their full sentences
By Steve Chapman - reason.com

People don't always get what they deserve in this world, so it is gratifying to see when someone does. It happened Wednesday when a California parole board insisted that Susan Atkins, a 61-year-old amputee with incurable brain cancer, live her few remaining months in prison rather than the embrace of her loved ones.

This may sound like pointless excess inflicted on someone whose crime, committed 40 years ago, is ancient history. But even to mention Atkins without first mentioning her victims is an affront. In 1969, she repeatedly thrust a knife into an innocent woman who was eight and a half months pregnant, killing her and her unborn child.

It's a crime that might be forgotten except that Atkins was a member of Charles Manson's murderous cult. Her victim, actress Sharon Tate, stabbed 16 times, was one of seven people slaughtered in Los Angeles in a two-night spree that Manson, insanely, thought would ignite a massive race war.

The rest of the story: