Posted on 07/03/2008 2:34:01 PM PDT by Free ThinkerNY
Few if any murders carry the horrifying cachet of the Manson murders in 1969. The deaths of seven people on two nights at the end of a tumultuous decade combined all of the political and cultural baggage of the era drugs, counterculture, celebrity, cults, and pure evil in the form of the perpetrators, especially Charles Manson himself. Combining mass murder and serial murder, the Manson Family has played on the imaginations of Americans for almost 40 years, while its members routinely apply for parole and get rejected.
Now one of them faces death, although much different in nature than the deaths she herself inflicted on her victims. Susan Atkins, probably the most committed of all the Tate/LaBianca murderers to Manson himself, has terminal brain cancer and is not expected to live out the year. She wants to be released so that she can die at home, presumably with family and friends. Matthew Schmalz asks in Newsweek whether mercy or retribution should take precedence (via Shaun Mullen):
Justice or mercy? That is the pressing question in what seems to be a coda in the story of the 1969 Manson family murders. At issue is the request by Susan Atkins, now 60, for compassionate release from prison on the grounds of terminal illness.
Apart from Charles Manson himself, Atkins was the public face of the Manson family during the Tate-LaBianca murder trial. She had bragged about mercilessly stabbing the pregnant Sharon Tate and laughed when details of the murders were presented in court. When she received a death sentence, the verdict seemed particularly appropriate. When her punishment was later changed to life imprisonment with possibility parole, it seemed to be a gross distortion of the justice process.
(Excerpt) Read more at hotair.com ...
Die in prison....why should she receive any more mercy than she showed Sharon Tate?
She can die in prison.
Unless there’s some place worse they can put her.
I pick prison and right now.
Numbers 12:3 "(Now the man Moses was very meek, above all the men which were upon the face of the earth.)"
Numbers 31:
[14] And Moses was wroth with the officers of the host, with the captains over thousands, and captains over hundreds, which came from the battle.The word which keeps getting translated into English as "meek" evidently does not mean being wishy-washy in the face of evil (as distinct from refraining from unnecessary violence)
[15] And Moses said unto them, Have ye saved all the women alive?
[16] Behold, these caused the children of Israel, through the counsel of Balaam, to commit trespass against the LORD in the matter of Peor, and there was a plague among the congregation of the LORD.
[17] Now therefore kill every male among the little ones, and kill every woman that hath known man by lying with him.
People who insist on never punishing evil are parasites on the rest of us who must work to keep everyone safe despite their opposition.
How horrific does a crime have to be to merit it ....?
..oh yeah, right....California.
We Floridians get too many insults as it is.
I remember a famous or infamous woman on death roll in Texas several years ago...
..I believe she really did have a conversion of faith...
..but President Bush did not see fit to grant her mercy, and she was executed.
If Adkins is dying, I think her folks should visit her.
Yesterday, July 15, the decision was made to keep her imprisoned....no early release.
Who said anything about “never punishing evil”???? I haven’t seen or read ANYTHING on this website that would reflect that kind of outrageous belief!
Susan Atkins did commit horrific murder 40 years ago, & she also has had a radical heart / life change, serving much of those many decades with dignity, and has made an enormous difference in the lives of hundreds of women in prison. She now has one leg, is paralyzed on one side of her body, and has terminal brain cancer with weeks to live. Just because some of us (only a few, sadly) think it would be a HUMANE and compassionate gesture to allow her to spend her last weeks with her family at home has nothing to do with excusing the evil acts she committed 40 years ago against her victims!
People — let’s get a grip. There are THOUSANDS of inmates who commit henious crimes against women and children, who DO get released after 25+ years, but you just don’t know about them because their cases weren’t so high profile.
Amen
the Old Covenant has some very relevant morsels doesn’t it?
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