Susan Atkins Denied Parole Again

Los Angeles (myFOXla.com) - A state parole board panel on Wednesday denied parole for Susan Atkins, convicted for her involvement in the eight Tate-La Bianca murders in 1969, rejecting her plea for a "compassionate release" from prison because of brain cancer.

A panel of the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation's Board of Prison Hearings issued a three-year denial, making the 61-year-old Atkins, a former Charles Manson follower, eligible for her next parole hearing in 2012, according to the department's Gordon Hinkle.

The decision marked the 13th time Atkins has been denied parole since 1976.

Debra Tate, a sister of Sharon Tate, and Anthony DiMaria, a nephew of Thomas Seabring, were among those testifying at the hearing at the Central California Women's Facility in Chowchilla, according to Sandi Gibbons of the Los Angeles County District Attorney's Office.

A Web site set up on Atkins' behalf notes that she has been behind bars for nearly 40 years and is "now paralyzed over 85 percent of her body, can not sit up in bed and can not even be moved into a wheelchair."

Atkins was convicted of the Aug. 9, 1969 slayings of Tate -- a 26-year- old actress who was 8 1/2 months pregnant with husband Roman Polanski's child -- Sebring and three others in the couple's rented Benedict Canyon home. The film director was out of the country at the time.

A day later, Manson's group struck again by fatally stabbing grocery store chain owner Leno La Bianca and his wife, Rosemary, in their Los Feliz home.

Atkins was also convicted of killing Topanga musician Gary Hinman, as was fellow Manson follower Robert Beausoleil.

Atkins, Manson and Beausoleil were all sentenced to death, but their death sentences were commuted to life in prison in 1972 when the U.S. Supreme Court established new requirements for capital cases.