Charles Manson Trial: 1970-71

Manson and his co-defendants were found guilty on January 25, 1971. Under California law, a second trial or "penalty phase" before the same jury then began to determine sentencing. Atkins took the stand and accused Kasabian, not Manson, of ordering the murders. Van Houten and Krenwinkel admitted taking part in the slayings but denied Manson's involvement. After two months of tumultuous testimony, the jury agreed with the prosecution's argument for the death penalty on March 29, 1971.

When the first sentence was pronounced on Manson, he began shouting that he had not been allowed to defend himself. "Better lock your doors and watch your own kids," warned Atkins. "Your whole system is a game," Van Houten exclaimed. The judge ordered all the defendants removed from the courtroom so that the judgments could be read without disruption.

Manson and the others were sentenced to die in the gas chamber. When Tex Watson was tried separately, he also was found guilty and sentenced to death. Yet no Manson case defendants were executed. Their sentences were transmuted to life imprisonment when the state of California abolished its death penalty on February 18, 1972. The U.S. Supreme Court ruled the death penalty unconstitutional under most circumstances later that year.

Long after the Manson case was over, it continued to create legal problems for William Farr, a Los Angeles newspaper reporter. Early in the trial, Farr wrote a story revealing Atkins' tales to her cellmates of "Family" plans to murder celebrities like Frank Sinatra and Elizabeth Taylor. Judge Older summoned Farr to his chambers and demanded to know who had released the confidential information. Farr refused to answer, citing a state law protecting journalists from being forced to reveal their sources.

After the trial, however, the judge learned that Farr was between jobs as a reporter and ordered him back into court to reveal his source or face a contempt charge. Farr said that two of the attorneys had provided the information, but declined to name them. All of the attorneys involved in the case swore under oath that they had not violated the "gag order." The judge ordered Farr to jail to serve an indefinite sentence for contempt. He was confined for 46 days before he was released to appeal the sentence.

The widely debated case was not resolved until 1976, when an appeals court threw out Judge Older's contempt sentence, ending Farr's numerous trips to court and massive legal bills. California laws were amended to protect former reporters as well as currently working journalists.

Leslie Van Houten was granted a new trial on grounds that Ronald Hughes' disappearance had denied her effective representation, but she was convicted again in 1978. Manson continued to charge that President Nixon's statement had tainted the fairness of his trial. Manson also cited a 1975 U.S. Supreme Court decision giving defendants the right to act as their own counsel, but the high court refused to hear Manson's appeal in 1977. In 1985 he was transferred from a state psychiatric prison to the San Quentin penitentiary, where he continues to apply unsuccessfully for parole.