"Had" the death penalty, at least when Manson was convicted in 1971. The problem is California invalidated the state's death penalty statute in 1972. Once they did that, Manson's sentence was commuted to life in prison. Bringing back the death penalty in 1974 didn't allow for a reversal back.
The death penalty was nixed in the early 70s in Cal, so Charlie and his gang were reduced to life sentences. If Cal has the death penalty now, the Manson gang were grandfathered to the life sentences.
....”Appeals go on forever”....
The prison system is far more engineered toward rehabilitation than punishment across the board unfortunately.....further...you basically have to be a millionaire to afford a private attorney for an American-style criminal trial. So I suspect the only avenue left for the little guy is appeals....
If we had the death penalty, without appeal, for every drug dealer and cold blooded murderer we’d solve a lot of the problems.