How Would You Decide?

You sit on the California state parole board looking into a request to release Susan Atkins, the terminally ill prisoner convicted of participating in the killing of actress Sharon Tate and four others in 1969.

At the parole hearing, you listen to family members of the victims.

Debra Tate, sister of the actress: "I will pray for her soul when she draws her last breath, but until then I think she should remain in this controlled situation."

Anthony DiMaria, nephew of Jay Sebring, characterized his repeated trips to parole hearings as "[sending] us back to hell year after year."

As a parole commissioner, you read through the Atkins file.

In her confession, Atkins described stabbing the 8 ½ month pregnant Tate to death as she begged for her life and that of her unborn son. "She asked me to let her baby live," Atkins told parole officials in 1993. "I told her I didn't have mercy for her."

At a 2000 hearing, Atkins said, "I sinned against God and everything this country stands for." At the time of the murders, Atkins claimed that she and other cult followers of Charles Manson were on LSD.

Last year, Atkins, 61, was diagnosed with brain cancer. Her husband and attorney James Whitehouse asked that she be released based on the basis of compassion. Since her diagnosis, she has had one leg amputated, the other is paralyzed. She remains bedridden and completely dependent on round-the-clock medical care costing the state $17,000 a month.

"As sad as Miss Atkins looks today," Los Angeles County Deputy District Attorney Pat Sequeira said at the hearing, "it pales against the crime scene photos. These were brutal, horrible crimes."

You examine the photos and find them extraordinarily disturbing, especially when you add Atkins own eyewitness account of that night.

So, how would you decide?

Would you grant Atkins request for compassionate release? If so, where was Atkins' compassion for her victims? And what would you say to the family members of those victims?

But who speaks for compassion?

"Compassion," the German philosopher Arthur Schopenhauer writes, "is the basis of morality."

Should compassion trump justice?

"Compassion," Rush Limbaugh says, "is no substitute for justice."

But, "If you want to be happy," the Dalai Lama tells us, "practice compassion."

Yes, but I'll bet the Dalai Lama never had close family members murdered in such a brutal manner.

But Gandhi reminds us that, "The weak can never forgive. Forgiveness is the attribute of the strong."

Yes, but isn't it up to God to forgive the truly horrible? Should we forgive all mass-murderers? Must we go that far?

I'd like to hear your thoughts on Susan Atkins. I'll offer a conclusion to this on Monday.

Jim Lichtman writes and speaks on ethics. His regular commentaries can be found at www.ethicsStupid.com

Comments

[gjdagis]

I believe that she should have been released. We need to be more civilized in this society and what better way than by showing compassion to others? Sure, whet she did was horrible, but time passes and people change. She wasn't a danger to anyone. Letting her die free and in peace would have elevated us all as a people!

[Fiona1933]

This is so true kalesoup
Another thing and it's one of the major problems of democracy, is the way everyone has an eye to their re-electio­n.Wasn't it Arnold Schwarzenegger who said he'd veto Susan's parole anyway? He wouldn't want to fight an election with his opponent holding up snaps of the murdered Sharon lying, so pregnant, in pools of blood. "Look who are Arnie's friends...­"
And who can blame the politicians for thinking so? When parole hearings for the Manson women come around, the National Enquirer has been known to issue a coupon, a coupon, no less, to oppose it. No need to think, people. No need to write a considered letter or search out the facts. Just look at this rehash of Helter-Skelter and this picture, and this one...now sign here...now send...goo­d. Well done. Justice is served.
Given the numbers who send, who'd care to release Susan? But maybe the public would appreciate a person with real integrity. One who stood up and said: "I take my job seriously. Justice must be blind and impartial. And if you do not believe this, do not elect me. I shall continue to act with absolute impartiality if you do." Who knows? people might appreciate it. It would make any opponent with the aforementioned bloody snaps look very cheap.

[kalesoup]

A parole board holds the power to reflect the better qualities of our society. The society needs to be kinder, greater, more compassionate and more just than any of its individual members. More just than Susan Atkins was forty years ago. More compassionate even than those that have the right to be vengeful.

Susan Atkins has done everything possible to turn her life around. Apparently this has little meaning to anyone on the parole board, but if they were being true to their position, true to the parole board guidelines, these circumstances should indeed be very relevant to them.

We must separate the criminal from the crime. The circumstances of the crime can never change and will forever be etched in our minds. But the participants in the crime can and often do change.

The “heinousness of the crime” was the excuse given by the parole board for the denial of parole. Let’s not insult the public. The reason for the denial was simply vengefulness. Vengefulness fueled incessantly by the victim’s families as well as a parole board whose conservative “eye for an eye” agenda feeds a vengeful public.

I would suggest that allowing Susan Atkins to go home to die would have sent a very powerfully good and strong message. A message to those inmates in prison who want to turn their life around, that it matters that they do so.

[Fiona1933]

If my comments do appear, they are in backwards order and there are four. Promise not to ramble so much another time.

[Fiona1933]

She didn't stab Sharon. But she fought with Frykowski and may have stabbed him thrashing wildly with her knife. (it was found with no blood traces on it, though.) Then, as her friends died around her, Sharon had to see it, under guard by Susan. Sharon sat on the couch very quiet. Susan sat on the coffee table in front of her. The scene is too easy to see. Vastly pregnant, helpless, Jay Sebring bleeding at her feet, screams and shrieks all around, and in front of her, the scrawny barefoot black-clad figure of Susan, with dark eyes horribly dilated by methamphetamine, it must have been like looking into the eyes of a shark. She couldn't follow Tex's kill order, but caught Sharon's arms and held them as Tex stabbed her. Later, Tex ran round all the bodies and stabbed them over and over on his meth frenzy. Similar crimes have happened in Thailand fuelled by yaba, as meth is called there, 'crazy medicine.'

[Fiona1933]

Tabloids continue to wheel out Bugliosi who went with the story from the start and who continues to defend the very suspect Linda Kasabian. Yet I would not agree with Susan's contention that Linda's involvement was equal to her's. Perhaps Susan's tragedy is she turned herself over to religion too fast. On Death Row, ignored by the other Manson girls because it was her fault they were on Death Row, reviled, isolated, directionless, without a friend in the world, Susan had a vision of Jesus and said she felt instantly "the bitterness was gone. The guilt, too" Yet she stated (this is all in her book) that she really felt no guilt for the crime, only for dropping her friends in trouble. She felt only bitterness because as her second book shows, she was obsessed with the unfair, as she saw it, way Linda had got away free and she was facing death. She does make some good points about this, but also shows she never understood just how terrible it all was.

[Fiona1933]

This is my first comment on this site and I'd like to ally myself firmly with mercyisjustice. What is especially dreadful about this story is how the truth has been obscured. Frightened, in a prison with many really hardened criminals, Susan recalled the advice of that long-time prison veteran, one Charles Manson. "if you feel under threat, act crazy. They'll leave you alone." so she did. She also had a tendency she was aware of, to boast, to be unable to keep quiet. So she spilled the story, but in line with acting crazy, wildly exaggerated it. Do you know she told another cellmate of a sexual tryst with a suicide? According to SA, the man asked her to have sex with him, tell her when she was climaxing, and he would climax and simultaneously shoot himself. So she did "and he came and the blood ran down into my mouth" she went on and on, with vast detail and her cellmate thought only "what an imagination!", also her first thought on hearing about the Tate killings. Susan did not stab Sharon, or cut out her baby, or drink her blood or anything else. But she has never been able to escape from those first stories, stories she denied immediately on interrogation and repeated in court to save Manson.

[ailbhe]

I only have the right to forgive people for the impact they have on me, I have no right to forgive somebody for what they did to somebody else and it would be the height of arrogance for me to presume to do so.

Murderers should never be released from prison, let them wait for the next life and if there is one they can burn in hell.

Any murderer who genuinely felt remorse for their crimes would accept their punishment in this life and want to make amends to the family. They would not put them through the hell of another parole hearing and the upset over the prospect of their loved one's murderer being released.

Murder victims never get a second chance, why should murderers?

[Pema]

the aurthor of this blog writes:
But, "If you want to be happy," the Dalai Lama tells us, "practice compassion­."
Yes, but I'll bet the Dalai Lama never had close family members murdered in such a brutal manner.
His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama has seen more brutailty than you can shake a stick at, he has had family killed, lamas, monks and nuns tortured raped and the loss of his country. children where forced with chinese guards holding their hands over the kids wrapped around a gun and forced them physically to shoot their parents. YET HH Dalai Lama pratices compassion, he feels sorry for these people who did this to them, theri minds are lost to hate and fear. yet dont take him out of context it is a marriage of compassion and wisdom, all compassion and no wisdom is like giving a drunk on the street a 5, he will go buy more booze and hurt himself drinking it, compassion with wisdom has you go buy the guy a meal and give it to him. you might find reading Dalai Lamas books enlightening. There is a reason so many around the world respect him, he knows sorrow, he knows pain, he also knows how to deal with it. please do not put him down esp when your just guessing. he deserves much better.

[Mercyisjustice]

The unhappy ending - tears shed
It was a cruel sadistic decision on balance, a continuation of the abusive victimisation of someone who was never the monster portrayed. If Parole hearings are just about tit for tat they mat as well equip the rooms with racks, or just lock them for good. It is a very sad comment on American society if it can not acknowledge growth or seek healing - to reduce the tragedies ripples after 40 years. My mother was a murder victim who suffered just as much, also a compassionate terminal care nurse. She believed in justice, prison for a time, but acknowledged that bad mistakes of minutes / days / weeks should not make us set out to destroy the perpetrators lives.
Life must be affirmed or the victims deaths count for nothing. Mum would want her killer being a Dad to his toddlers - not them going in his footsteps through no father presence ever. The Tate website says Sharon was known for her kindness. Would she approve of her families vendetta - and this? Roman has not commented - he knows mistakes happen- even disastrous ones. this does not remove human worth.

[Mercyisjustice]

Part 3 Some victims forgive, some don't - decisions about releases should not depend on these vagaries. The US system is dysfunctional in that DAs etc have incestuous relationships, as do media with victims, and feed off promoting non healing. In my country homicide victims often find peace enough after adequate skilled counselling to be ok with parole by 10-15 years. It is sick the Manson victims 40 yrs on are encouraged to revisit traumatic posters by DAs etc each parole hearing - unethical as its likely to stoke post traumatic stress. The board had a duty to also weight Susans families interests and the numerous mitigating factors. It failed miserably, it gave dishonest justifications (lack of remorse - ha ha ha ha) (crime too atrocious - then it should never have put everyone through hearings) and in so doing it showed the moral sophistication and ethical reasoning of a 4 year old. The didn't give mercy so doesn't get it view belittled America as a fair impartial, decent land. It did not take so much as mercy to release Susan, but a lower value - just common decency.

[Mercyisjustice]

Part 2
She has been divorced from possibility of dispassionate fair parole hearings by media beat ups which have seriously misrepresented Atkins role and nature. The final legal position per the 1976 Appellant Judgement as accepted at her latest Parole hearing (but of course unreported) is that she NEVER stabbed Tate. History will be corrected on this, and Atkins will be known for her real remorse filled person not the media caricature. The process has begun. Atkins has been heroic in staying to her 35 year course of loving positivity despite life her life sentence as a mascot for hate and witch hunters. The bottom line is that she had earnt parole by usual standards, her media exaggerated role in the murders was penalised as much as was reasonable, to deny her the small dignity of parolee (not free) status so she could die with the small solace of family in close attendance IS SADISTIC. Dying weeks are a time of grace, and not about individuals but family. Amnesty was deserved here - it couldn't hurt Tates family near as much to know Atkins had a short spell at home, as much as it will hurt Atkins one to miss dignified goodbyes. Society had the duty in the form of the parole decision to make the right just decision. Victim animosity, votes and public opinion shouldn't have been so weighted. Victims can become egocentric, obsessed . Society is dysfunctional if systems act as their agents - rather than in an

[Mercyisjustice]

Part 1
It will take time, but I dedicate my life to making America acknowledge it's mistake this week. My view is shaped in order of importance by - being a homicide victim and victim support worker, being a forensic psychiatric nurse who's worked with around 1000 murderers, being a friend of the Atkins family. Where America and media has it wrong is in 2 ways. In casting it as a choice between victims getting their way or perpetrators getting it theirs. And in making parole decisions so politically influenced. Ethically there are more stakeholders whose interests need balancing - societies including fiscal (are prisons best used to rehabilitate those who will live or as hospitals for non threatening folk), extended family of the victim who are taxpayers and entitled to compassion. To some privacy and unrestricted access (not 2 hours a day after a 6 hour drive into the wilderness - cruel for stressed anxious people). Justice wise Atkins has been discriminated, against as many who have committed much more heinous crimes have been released in half the time she has, people who lately did similar like the DC sniper were allowed brainwashing as a mitigating factor, the wife of the man who kept a sex slave in a coffin 6 years completely evaded charges due to being under his sway...

[Sally7143]

As you should already know, countless numbers of the Dalai Lama's personal friends and, yes, even his family members, have been tortured death in much slower, more brutal ways than the brief hours ot the horrible murders committed by the Manson Family.

Sharon Tate, her baby and her friends did nothing to deserve their terrifying deaths. Nevertheless, the Dalai Lama and all Buddhists still believe choosing compassion is the better way to live our lives when we have the ability to do so.

Susan Atkins is not a threat to anyone now. Let her go home.

[Jim Lichtman - Huffpost Blogger]

Although I was aware that Tibetan Monks and friends have suffered such brutality, I was unaware that any of the Dalai Lama's family members "have been tortured to death."
I appreciate your correcting me.
--Jim

[Pema]

Jim, maybe research next time. he also was the leader of the country and he saw all his charges go thru this over a million tibetans killed. millions more raped or tortured. that would make any head of a country feel horrible, helpless. these wernt just his country men they were and are his spiritual brothers and sisters. watch the movie "Kundun" it is a small window into a horrific situation and will give you much better idea of who and what the Dalai Lama is. to us, he isnt just a person, he is the embodiment of all we strive for. he is the living hope of enlightenment,. the living hope of how to be kind, the living hope of using wisdom over negative emotions. he is so much to us.

[Pema]

thank you for bringing that up about HH Dalai Lama family and friends. we work to have that ability...­doesnt mean we are all making it.. but we try. :)

[Parducci]

This is not about what her healthcare costs, especially since she's going to be on the government dole in or out of prison.

This is about the debt that she owes to society for her crimes and the respect that we owe to her victims. She was sentenced to life in prison. Now she is nearing the end of that sentence but we owe it to her victims to require her to complete it.