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Will former Charles Manson family member, Susan Atkins, be released from prison by Aug 1st?

Settled as No

Compassionate release has been denied

http://apnews.excite.com/article/20080715/D91UJ8700.html

Background:

Atkins, 60, was convicted in the 1969 slayings of actress Sharon Tate and four others. She had been incarcerated at the California Institution for Women in Corona, California, but has been hospitalized since mid-March.
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.

 
Forecast history, %
   Zoom in

Settled

Yes
29%
No
71%
Activity: H$16,829
Settled as No on Wed 16th Jul 2:22am PDT

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:

Created Sat 21st Jun 2:52pm PDT by mrperfkt[Admin]
Settlement requested Tue 15th Jul 5:39pm PDT by jenniandboys[Admin]: Not sure if this should settle the market or not: http://apnews.excite.com/article/20080715/D91UJ8700.html

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)
Suspended Tue 15th Jul 5:39pm PDT by jenniandboys[Admin]: Suspended pending settlement
Settlement requested Tue 15th Jul 8:34pm PDT by chatarra: Should be settled as "No".
Release denied for dying Manson follower.

Over 1000 news stories on this subject:
http://news.google.com/news?q=Susan+Atkins&ie=UTF-8
Settled as 'No' Wed 16th Jul 2:22am PDT by tisha[Admin]: Compassionate release has been denied

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

20 weeks ago
valornhonor[Power User] predicted No (H$50 at 71%)
20 weeks ago
newswrangler[Power User] predicted No (H$200 at 72%)
20 weeks ago
kiwifire predicted No (H$40 at 69%)
20 weeks ago
mona predicted No (H$100 at 71%)
20 weeks ago
silvermchic predicted No (H$100 at 71%)
more

Comments (15)

  1 frank2877
Gee, let's release Charlie while we're at it. :-)
posted 23 weeks ago
  2 mrperfkt[Admin]
Sure, she brutally murdered at least 5 innocent people, called them pigs, etc etc. However, she now (reportedly) has terminal brain cancer, has had an amputation, is a born again christian, has helped victims while in prison...so, is she a threat to society? Should we have compassion?

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....
posted 23 weeks ago
Court will probably rule against her request. Cali has only said yes to 10 of these requests have been approved in the last year (out of 60.)
posted 23 weeks ago
  4 aland
If she succumbs to her illness and her remains are removed from the penitentiary before August 1st, will that count as a "release"?
posted 23 weeks ago
  5 mrperfkt[Admin]
@aland. Interesting question. However, as stated above "To settle as yes, she will need to be given permission to leave and actually leave by August 1st."

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. :)
posted 23 weeks ago
  7 frank2877
Atkins recounted her role in stabbing Tate, who pleaded for the life of her unborn baby.

"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.
posted 20 weeks ago
  8 frank2877
No release for Atkins!

http://apnews.excite.com/article/20080715/D91UJ8700.html

posted 20 weeks ago
I've suspended the market, although I'm not certain that it will be settled. She has been denied Parole and I don't see any possible way for her to legally leave the prison within the next two weeks.. but is that enough to settle? I don't know... We'll let the Category Editor take a look at the news and make a decision...
posted 20 weeks ago
  10 chatarra
@ Jenni_&_Boys:
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>)
posted 20 weeks ago
@chatarra - you are completely right. My hesitation came purely from not wanting to be in the middle of a fight. If she really did die in the next two weeks, I could definitely see a "her body has left the jail" or "her soul has been released" argument started! I'm glad Tisha confidently settled it though :)
posted 20 weeks ago
  13 mrperfkt[Admin]
Not trying to start a heated debate about settlement, but thought this should at least be considered....
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...

posted 20 weeks ago
  14 tisha[Admin]
You raise a good point mrperfkt. My preference would be to leave the market as settled, but obviously resettle should a court development arise, releasing Manson by August 1.
posted 20 weeks ago
  15 mrperfkt[Admin]
@Tisha - That makes sense and sounds fair to me. Doesn't seem like anyone (including "The Governator") approves of the release, but thought I'd check as it was stated that the court was the only one that had the power to make the ultimate decision. Thanks for the quick response!
posted 20 weeks ago

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