One of the most famous criminals in the United States history lost his life recently while serving a life sentence in prison. Charles Manson was an American who led a cult that carried out a series of murders in the 1960s (Almasy and Griggs 1). When he was arrested, he was sentenced to death, but later it was reduced to life imprisonment.
Before his arrest, Manson planned and brought a wave of violence in 1969 in the state of California, which led to the death of seven people. He had his cult members, which was known as the Manson Family who were arrested and charged with murder (Almasy and Griggs 1). The members were so loyal that they would kill anyone for him.
On November 19, 2017, Manson died under natural causes while serving his term in prison at the age of 83 years. Before his demise, Manson had been admitted to hospital in California due to an undisclosed illness (Almasy and Griggs 1). He had also been admitted to hospital earlier in the year, but no information about his ailment was released due to security and privacy reasons.
The Manson story relates to the death penalty since he had earlier been sentenced to death. In relation to the crimes he had committed, most people thought that he deserved the initial sentence to death, which was later reduced to life sentence after the United States Supreme Court invalidated death sentences prior to 1972 (Almasy and Griggs 1). Initially, crimes committed by Manson would have cost him his life, but the Supreme Court saved him. Although he had committed capital offenses, which included murder, he was never executed as ordered by the court.
Works Cited
Steve Almasy and Brandon Griggs. Charles Manson, leader of Murderous ‘60s Cult, dead at 83. CNN (2017) Accessed 25 Nov 2017. http://edition.cnn.com/2017/11/20/us/charles-manson-dead/index.html