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LOS ANGELES, California (CNN) -- Former Manson family member Susan Atkins has requested a "compassionate release" from prison because she has less than six months to live, a California prisons spokeswoman said Friday. Susan Atkins, Califorina's longest-serving female inmate, is shown in her most recent mug shot. 1 of 2 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 Atkins, the state's longest- serving female inmate, has been hospitalized since March 18 and is listed in serious condition, state corrections...

CORONA, Calif. (AP) — Former Charles Manson follower Susan Atkins, convicted in the 1969 murder of actress Sharon Tate, could soon be released from prison because she is near death, authorities said. Atkins, 59, is terminally ill and being considered for so-called "compassionate release," state corrections spokeswoman Terry Thornton said. She gave no details of Atkins' illness, but said a doctor had determined she had less than six months to live. The corrections department was reviewing the request, which if approved would then be passed to the state Board of Parole which has the power to release Atkins under state...

Former Charles Manson follower Susan Atkins was denied parole for the 11th time Wednesday for her role in the 1969 murders of actress Sharon Tate and six others during a crime rampage that stunned the nation. Atkins, now 57, was one of cult leader Manson's "family" of young killers who burst into a Benedict Canyon home 36 years ago and killed Tate and four others. The following night, they stabbed to death a wealthy couple in their Los Angeles home. Although Atkins has since embraced Christianity and apologized for the killings, Board of Prison Terms spokesman Tip Kindel said the...

Susan Atkins, convicted in the 1969 Tate-LaBianca murders, has a parole hearing on March 22, 2005 at 1:00 p.m.

RIVERSIDE, Calif. -- Former Charles Manson disciple and convicted murderer Susan Atkins is suing Gov. Gray Davis, contending his policy opposing parole for nearly all murderers has made her a political prisoner. Parole board members and prison officials also are named in the federal civil rights lawsuit, which accuses them of ignoring the Constitution and parole rules to keep Atkins behind bars. "Over the course of her incarceration, Ms. Atkins has been transformed into a political prisoner," said the suit, filed by attorney Eric P. Lampel of Irvine. He said psychiatrists call her a model prisoner who is not a...