Opinion: The legal blunder that gave us Manson ‘family’ parole hearings

To the editor: When the California Supreme Court struck down the death penalty in 1972 on constitutional grounds, it committed the colossal — and to this day unexplained — blunder of commuting all death sentences to life with possibility of parole. (“Why members of the Manson family still don’t deserve parole after murdering my sister,” Opinion, Jan. 4)

The unanimous juries that sentenced the Manson family members to death for the murders at the Tate and LaBianca households intended that none of these defendants ever leave prison alive. The court should have respected this due process of law in its ruling by commuting all existing death sentences to life in prison without parole. The fact that a majority of the justices failed to do so has led to a long-running travesty of justice which has subjected the victims’ families to the ongoing pain and distress caused whenever one of these vicious killers is once again considered for release from prison.

If the Board of Parole Hearings is incapable of acting correctly on any Manson family member, let’s hope that Gov. Jerry Brown will continue to judiciously overrule it.

Marcia Goodman, Long Beach

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To the editor: So another former follower of Charles Manson seeks parole. Again. And again the rest of us need to pay lots of money to keep attorneys in business and make sure she is not released into the public.

I am not a fan of the death penalty, but if that’s what it would take to get this whole Manson thing off my agenda, sign me up as a supporter. I am one California taxpayer who is sick and tired of this whole “Parole the Manson Family Member du Jour” thing.

If I am ever talked into butchering another person and mutilating him or her with a fork, as Patricia Krenwinkel did in 1969, please subject me to the death penalty and spare the rest of humanity having to deal with my parole requests. Mass murderers don’t deserve the publicity, let alone the sympathy.

Bob Warnock, Eagle Rock

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