the family wants out

today, cnn posted an article about renewed interest in charles manson and the convicted family members. all the family members who committed the actual crimes have accepted responsibility for their actions and are considered model prisoners. one trains dogs to be helper dogs, one is an ordained minister and another is the mentor for the prison's college program. not surprisingly they keep petitioning to be released, specifically susan atkins, aka sadie, and are regularly denied.

susan atkins has asked for a compassionate release since she has cancer, is seriously debilitated and will not live much longer. at first, when i was reading the article i thought, "why not, she should spend her last days with her family. it's not like she can hurt anyone anymore." but then i read this:

By her own admission, Atkins held Tate down as she pleaded for mercy, and stabbed the eight-months-pregnant woman 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 stabbing Tate to death, 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, who was not home at the time.

reading that immediately killed any compassion i may have had for her. she killed a pregnant woman pleading for her life and the life of her unborn child. pretty cold. why should she be shown any compassion or mercy? well, then i read that vince bugliosi, the attorney who prosecuted her and wrote the book Helter Skelter, said if she wasn't released, aren't we using the same behaviour she used with sharon tate and the others killed that night?

i dunno, her lack of compassion, to me, makes me think she should be made comfortable in prison while still serving out the rest of her term. as a convicted con, she doesn't get freedom or the same treatment as those who have observed and respected the laws of man. her incarceration while enduring brain cancer is the price of having taken lives. it's the price of having made mistakes as a young woman.

tex watson is quoted:
"He was manipulative," Watson said of Manson in a November 2004 radio interview, the transcript of which is posted on the Web site. "But I take full responsibility for my ignorance, lack of identity, emptiness and choices in life, which left me prey to his deceptive plan. My actions were my own."

if he truly meant that, why is he asking for release? it's the penalty for not playing well with others. i don't think they should be granted freedom. period. not the death penalty, just life in prison.