July 18, 2008
SACRAMENTO, Calif. - California parole officials on Tuesday considered releasing a follower of Charles Manson who is dying of brain cancer, but the governor and others said her decades-old crimes were too brutal for her to be shown such mercy.
Susan Atkins' doctors and officials at the women's prison in Corona made the compassionate release request in March because of her deteriorating health. Atkins also has had her left leg amputated and is paralyzed on her right side, her husband and attorney, James Whitehouse, told the California Board of Parole Hearings.
He said doctors have given her three months to live.
"Why should we continue to incarcerate her at this point in life?" Whitehouse said. "She can't sit up in bed. ... She literally can't snap her fingers. She can put sentences together three or four times a day, but that's the extent of it."
Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and Suzan Hubbard, the state's director of adult prisons, also recommended against Atkins' release.
"They have to stay in, have to serve their time," Schwarzenegger said Tuesday during an unrelated news conference. Even if Atkins is dying, the governor said, "Those kinds of crimes are just so unbelievable, that I am not for compassionate release in that case."
Corrections Department spokeswoman Terry Thornton says Atkins' medical treatment has cost state taxpayers more than $1.4 million since March.
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