(CNN) -- Susan Atkins is terminally ill; Charles "Tex" Watson is an ordained minister. They and other members of Charles Manson's murderous "family" now shun him.
After three decades behind bars, Manson family members Atkins, Watson, Patricia Krenwinkel and Leslie Van Houten have repeatedly been described as model prisoners who have accepted responsibility for their crimes.
Parole boards, however, continue to reject their bids for release, and a debate rages over whether the four should ever be freed.
Why? Why is there a debate over this at all? These folks should have been shot at dawn. End of story. The fact that their death sentences were overturned in 1972 meant that they were spared the chair; now they serve as cautionary examples of why we so desperately need the death penalty. Folks, if any single member of the Manson family is paroled from jail, it would be the single biggest pro-death penalty push made in this country since Timothy McVeigh was sent to hell.
I'm sure they "long" for freedom. I'm equally certain that Sharon Tate longed for her life to be spared, and that we should show poor crippled Susan Atkins the exact same level of compassion she showed Tate as she stabbed her to death: NONE. This is exactly the kind of case that wins my reluctant support of the death penalty - these people should NEVER come up for parole. The very fact that they DO come up for parole is a joke, a sham, a travesty of justice so perverse that it could only come from California. Or perhaps Massachusetts, assuming we don't just let our murderers go free on furloughs...
It absolutely boggles my ever-lovin' mind that members of the friggin' MANSON FAMILY are making a concerted effort to win their release from prison. It stuns, saddens, and shocks me greatly to learn that Manson himself comes up for parole. Digging a little deeper, I found that Manson first came up for parole in 1978 - yes, a scant eight years after the gruesome murders that rocked America.
And every year that passes, every turn of the calendar page brings us a little closer to the day when that horror is forgotten; when this monster gains his legal release from prison. Rather than being carried out in a pine box, he'll walk out a free man. On that day, justice will no longer simply be blind; she will be deaf, dumb, and stupid as well.
On the plus side, it makes for a very quick and defensible answer to the question "Why do you carry a gun?"...
That is all.
7 comments:
Let's play the "Word Substitution" Game. Replace "Manson Family" with "convicted of targeting and killing abortion doctors" and see how many of the usual suspects keep advocating for release.
Manson family members ... have accepted responsibility for their crimes.
If true, then why would they be asking for a release from prison?
Part of accepting responsibility for one's actions includes accepting the consequences of them.
If they truly accept responsibility, then they would be eager to continue their restitution to society by remaining "model prisoners" until they die.
To quote Ron White, because as we all know that nutter isn't quoted enough...
"In Texas, we have the death penalty, and we USE it!"
Damn skippy.
Jay, you realize that in 1972 there was no such thing as life without parole right?
Coming from there, I had a childhood friend who's father sat on Manson's parole board. He said Hell would freeze over before they'd get out. And, barring a few people ion the truly LOONEY left, no one thinks otherwise.
Parole should be abolished along with indeterminate sentencing. You get the time, you do 85% the way they do in the federal system. Life w/o poss means exactly that.
While I'd stand in line to pull the switch on these wastes of flesh, the price for having the death penalty instead of life w/o poss is that it's not applied evenly. "Aggravating circumstances" has come to mean nothing.
Let 'em rot. It's cheaper in the long run too. You do NOT want to forego the appeal system when someone's life is on the line and that costs more $$ than just keeping them in the slammer forever.
Send them down the chute at Mount Mihara.
My poster boy for the death penalty is William Morva.
This piece of garbage was already in jail awaiting trial for armed robbery, but that still didn't stop him from killing two people in an escape attempt.
When jail can't stop someone from killing, a more permanent solution is called for.
Well said Jay... dammit...
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