Posted on 02/17/2023 12:13:34 AM PST by grundle
LOS ANGELES (AP) — A Southern California motorcycle club founder who killed three people in 1980 has been ordered to be released this week, following a terminal cancer diagnosis, prosecutors said Thursday.
Thomas Maniscalco, 77, has been incarcerated for nearly 40 years after his 1994 conviction on three counts of second-degree murder, with enhancements for being armed with a firearm, according to state prison officials. He was sentenced to life in prison and has been denied parole twice.
He was ordered released under California's compassionate release law, which was amended last year and allows for incarcerated people to be freed if they have a serious and advanced illness with an end-of-life trajectory.
Maniscalco was the co-founder of the Hessian Motorcycle Club. Prosecutors said Maniscalco thought Richard Rizzone, another Hessian, was ripping him off in a counterfeiting and meth distribution ring.
Rizzone, his 19-year-old girlfriend Rena Miley and his bodyguard Thomas Monahan were killed in the 1980 Memorial Day attack in Rizzone's home in Westminster, which is about 25 miles (40 kilometers) southeast of downtown Los Angeles. All three were shot multiple times at close range.
Prosecutors said Miley, a police officer's daughter, and Monahan were slain so the killers could avoid witnesses.
Maniscalco and a fellow Hessian were convicted in the massacre. A third biker was killed by police in Oklahoma before charges could be brought.
Orange County District Attorney Todd Spitzer said Maniscalco, who will be released to his daughter who lives in the San Francisco Bay Area, poses a threat to public safety.
“He has taken no responsibility for the lives he destroyed and soon he will be a free man with nothing to lose," Spitzer said in a news release.
The state corrections department declined to comment Thursday.
(Excerpt) Read more at yahoo.com ...
Lived 42 years too long.
Should die in prison like he was supposed to. Zero sympathy.
As liberal as Michigan is I have personally seen them hold onto some terminal lifers like a dog holds onto a beef bone. And if they do release them, it’s so the state is off the hook for end-of-life care and hospice costs. I’ve seen them do that for prisoners in permanent vegetative states as well.
CC
1994 was 29 years ago. I am hoping this is just a typo and they meant to say "nearly 30 years".
Either way, poor math and poor proof-reading.
That is very likely what is going on here under the guise of "compassion".
I wouldn’t be suprised at all.
CC
I wonder how the state will be off for end of life care because when they get out they are terminal, no job, and presumably no medical insurance?
I don’t think they’re thinking that far ahead. All the state knows is that they’re not financially liable after he’s released. Likely the hospitals or medicaid will be picking it up. But he’ll be off the CDCR’s ledgers.
CC
He was ordered released under California’s compassionate release law, which was amended last year and allows for incarcerated people to be freed if they have a serious and advanced illness with an end-of-life trajectory.
Hahaha
Haven't you heard - Numbers and math are just racist constructs of the toxic white power structure.....
It’s stupidity like this that kills innocent people, not guns.
Just when his life sentence is about to work.
Some ivermectin/fenbendazole and various other supplements later, he’ll be doing it again for longer. I wouldn’t be surprised if he kills at least one more.
“He was ordered released under California’s compassionate release law, which was amended last year and allows for incarcerated people to be freed if they have a serious and advanced illness with an end-of-life trajectory.”
I’m in favor of compassionate execution in these cases.
No compassion for the victims, future victims and the broke Ca taxpayers - only crimmigrants and criminals.
Prisoners in permanent vegetative states?
Isn’t there a couple of Jan 6 prisoners who have cancer?
If the state DOC released him to avoid the cost of his health care, the state human services will qualify him for MediCal and other welfare benefits and still ends up on the hook for his health care. Liberal math.
An old, terminally ill person who has been in prison for decades is still going to get medical care courtesy of the taxpayer, except not from the prisons’ budget.
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