DA Cooley opposes Atkins release

District Attorney Steve Cooley sent a letter to the chairman of the state Board of Parole Hearings strongly opposing the compassionate release from prison of Manson family killer Susan Atkins. She repeatedly stabbed actress Sharon Tate in the 1969 murders that stunned Los Angeles and introduced the world to Charles Manson and his young, mostly female followers. Atkins, the longest-serving female inmate in California's prison system, is reportedly terminally ill with cancer and prison authorities want to send her home.