Charles Manson parole hearing due
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-17680252
Photo of a 77-year-old Charles Manson from the California department of corrections 5 April 2012 California prison officials recently released new photos of Manson, now 77-years-old
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Notorious mass murderer Charles Manson is up for parole in California, possibly for the last time, but he is not expected to attend the hearing.
Manson, convicted in 1971 and serving a life sentence for seven murders, has not appeared in front of the parole board since 1997.
The 77-year-old's last hearing was in 2007.
Debra Tate, the sister of one of Manson's victims, said she would attend to make her case against his release.
"I've tried to take this thing that I do, that has become my lot in life, and make it have purpose," Ms Tate, whose sister was actress Sharon Tate, told the Associated Press news agency.
"I've been doing it for Sharon and the other victims of him for the last 40 years."
Smuggled mobile phones
The wife of film director Roman Polanski, Sharon Tate was eight-and-a-half months pregnant when she was murdered by the Manson gang.
Continue reading the main story
“Start Quote
Debra Tate
It's important to me that I try to diminish their status as urban legends”
End Quote Debra Tate Sister of Manson victim
The cult leader and his followers, known as the Manson family, stabbed and shot seven people in Los Angeles over two nights in 1969 in an attempt to start a race war.
Manson and three women accomplices were sentenced to death in 1969, but that was commuted in 1972 when California temporarily outlawed the death penalty.
Since his last parole hearing, Manson has been caught in possession of a weapon, twice with contraband mobile phones, and has threatened an official, according to the California Department of Corrections.
Prison officials found he had been talking with people in California, New Jersey, Florida, British Columbia, Arkansas, Massachusetts and Indiana.
Even if Manson does not appear before the parole board, his court-appointed lawyer will argue that he should be taken out of prison and put into protective psychiatric care.
Debra Tate says she doubts Manson will ever be freed but hopes that she can confront any perception of him as a cult figure.
She said: "It's important to me that I try to diminish and tarnish their status as urban legends. It's wrong, it's just plain wrong."