
Will former Charles Manson family member, Susan Atkins, be released from prison by Aug 1st?
Compassionate release has been denied
http://apnews.excite.com/article/20080715/D91UJ8700.html
Background:>
Her request is now before the Board of Parole Hearings, which is conducting an independent investigation and will hear the case during its monthly public meeting, Thornton said. The next meeting is scheduled July 15.
Atkins had been held for years at the Corona prison, which earlier determined that she met the criteria for compassionate release under the law, and sent her request to the corrections department.
The Board of Parole Hearings will receive public comment, discuss the request in closed session and then announce its recommendation. The board also can decide whether to refer the request to the sentencing court.
The court, based in Los Angeles, can either grant or deny Atkins' request. It also can recall her life sentence and resentence Atkins to a lesser term, allowing for her to be paroled.
In 2007, the department received 60 compassionate release requests, Thornton said. Ten were approved.
Citing privacy rules, prison officials would not disclose the nature of Atkins' illness. Her husband and attorney, James Whitehouse, has been quoted as saying she has terminal brain cancer, according to a blog called Manson Family Today. She also has had a leg amputated, the Los Angeles Times has reported.
Atkins, known within the Manson family as "Sadie Mae Glutz," has been in prison since 1971 and has been denied parole 11 times. She is California's longest-serving female inmate.
http://www.cnn.com/2008/CRIME/06/20/manson.atkins/index.html
While there are a number of different possible outcomes, I decided to keep this as a simple yes or no. To settle as yes, she will need to be given permission to leave and actually leave by August 1st.
Settlement details:
As reported by a major mainstream news source.
Settled
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Yes |
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No |
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Suspend date: Thu 31st Jul 4:59pm PDT Settlement date: Wed 16th Jul 2:22am PDTPrediction cut-off: Predictions on this question after Tue 15th Jul 12:59pm PDT have been voided because they were made after the question could be settled
Initial likelihoods: Yes: 40%
Action history:
She has been denied parole, any further legal matters would certainly take longer than 2 weeks to work out... I'm unsure, but will suspend now to give you a chance to look over the settlement yourself. (market suspended)
Release denied for dying Manson follower.
Over 1000 news stories on this subject:
http://news.google.com/news?q=Susan+Atkins&ie=UTF-8
http://apnews.excite.com/article/20080715/D91UJ8700.html
Suspend date: Thu 31st Jul 4:59pm PDT Settlement date: Wed 16th Jul 2:22am PDTPrediction cut-off: Predictions on this question after Tue 15th Jul 12:59pm PDT have been voided because they were made after the question could be settled
more info...
Predictions (60)
60 predictions
Comments (15)
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While, I personally think life sentence should mean life sentence, the severity of her illness (which is not clearly known) and the legalities of that make me wonder if there is a chance that the courts could rule in her favor.
Ahhh...the "justice" system....
If she manages to be granted permission and dies in between that time, but before she walks out and also before August 1st, then I'll leave that up to the admins to sort out. :)
"She kept begging and pleading and begging and pleading and I got sick of listening to it, so I stabbed her," Atkins said during her testimony.
To bad California didn't apply the death penalty. It would have saved the state a pile of money.
http://apnews.excite.com/article/20080715/D91UJ8700.html
The only way she could leave now would be with a jail break or in a coffin.
And that would not be considered a "release".
I think your concern has more to do with the suspension date, rather than the parole board's decision. After hearing some of the heated arguments about mistaken settlements, I can't really blame you. 8>)
The original news story states "The court -- not the department or the state Board of Parole Hearings -- has the final say on whether Atkins should be released, Thornton said. "They're the only ones legally who can recall the sentence."
The stories from yesterday also state "Her lawyer said he has filed a separate motion in Los Angeles County Superior Court seeking his client's release, anyway."
While it's probably more likely that her "soul would be released" before the court makes a decision, I thought I'd throw that out there to see if anyone else had thoughts on this.
Not sure what good it would do to re-open the question, but thought this could be an important detail.
I'm going to flag, but am okay with whatever the outcome is. Just curious what anyone else thought...
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