Corcoran, Calif.
Manson parole hearing: Mass murderer Charles Manson was denied parole this week in his 12th and probably final bid for freedom. Manson, gray-bearded and 77 years old, did not attend the hearing, where the parole board said that he had shown no efforts at rehabilitation and would not be eligible for parole for another 15 years. “At his age, I think he doesn’t care,” said Deputy District Attorney Patrick Sequeira, who argued against Manson’s release. “He would be lost if he got out. He’s completely institutionalized.” Manson, who is incarcerated at Corcoran State Prison in Central California, has not appeared at a parole hearing since 1997, though he has plenty of visitors, according to prison officials. He was convicted in the 1969 murders of actress Sharon Tate and six others, in one of the most gruesome mass murders in the nation’s history.
Phoenix
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Anti-abortion bill passed: A controversial Arizona bill that would ban most abortions after 20 weeks of pregnancy moved one step closer to becoming law this week. The bill, which would allow abortions after 20 weeks only in the case of medical emergency, passed by a 20–10 vote along party lines in the Republican-controlled state Senate. The bill would also require women to undergo an ultrasound 24 hours before an abortion, and it mandates that a state-run website display images of fetuses at various stages of development. Under Roe v. Wade, the 1973 Supreme Court decision that legalized abortion, states may ban the procedure after the point when the fetus could potentially survive outside the womb, unless a woman’s health is at risk. Bryan Howard of Planned Parenthood said legislators were “pushing their own ideological agenda,” and said that he would continue to fight against the bill.
Tulsa
Confessions in shootings: The two suspects in the Tulsa shooting spree that killed three and wounded two other African-Americans confessed to the crimes this week, according to police documents. Jacob England, 19, told investigators that he shot three of the African-Americans who were injured or killed in last week’s shooting spree, according to police sources. England’s friend Alvin Watts, 32, confessed to shooting the other two people, according to the documents, which included summaries of the reported confessions. The men are accused of firing at random victims at four different locations in a largely African-American section of Tulsa. Prosecutors are reviewing whether to charge the pair with hate crimes, said Tulsa County District Attorney Tim Harris. “If the facts and the evidence support that, then we’re going to go forward with it.”
Nashville
‘Creationism law’ passed: Tennessee teachers will be free to question evolution and compare it to “intelligent design’’ under a law passed by the state legislature this week. The American Civil Liberties Union and the state teachers union opposed the new law, describing it as a cover for those who would bring creationism—the religious belief that life on Earth was created by God—into science classes, where it would be taught as a rival theory to the theory of evolution. Critics have compared the bill’s passage with the so-called “Scopes Monkey Trial” of 1925, in which a Tennessee teacher was convicted of violating state law by teaching evolution. “Telling students that evolution and climate change are scientifically controversial is miseducating them,” said Eugenie C. Scott of the National Center for Science Education. “Good science teachers know that.”
Virginia Beach, Va.
Jet crash ‘miracle’: A Navy fighter jet crashed into an apartment complex last week, causing fires and explosions but no fatalities in what military officials called a “miracle.” Seven people were injured in the crash, including the fighter’s two-person crew, who ejected from the jet seconds before it fell in flames into the courtyard of the Mayfair Mews apartment complex, setting five buildings aflame. “There’s a terrible fire at the Mayfair Mews apartment building,” one witness told 911 dispatchers. “Oh my God! It’s like something keeps exploding.” Those who lost their homes in the crash will receive immediate compensation, said Naval Rear Adm. Tim Alexander. “We owe it to everyone affected by Friday’s accident to help them get their life back together.”
Sanford, Fla.
Zimmerman charged: The special prosecutor in the Trayvon Martin investigation this week charged neighborhood-watch volunteer George Zimmerman with second-degree murder. Prosecutor Angela Corey said she’d decided to charge Zimmerman in the case—which has bitterly divided the country over issues of race and self-defense—after a thorough investigation into the evidence. “We did not come to this decision lightly,” Corey said. “Let me emphasize that we do not prosecute by public pressure.’’ Zimmerman was taken into custody. Martin, a 17-year-old black man, was returning from a trip to a 7-Eleven for ice tea and Skittles when Zimmerman shot him to death on Feb. 26. Minutes earlier, Zimmerman, 28, had called police to report seeing a “suspicious’’ person, and began following Martin, who ran from him. Zimmerman told Sanford police that Martin had turned, punched him, and climbed on top of him, and police did not charge him with a crime under the state’s “stand your ground’’ law. Some witnesses have disputed that account.
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