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​​In Memory of Susan Denise Atkins-Whitehouse

Can We Go Home Now?

In their interview of Susan during her 1993 parole hearing,
The California Board of Prison Terms
revealed their incomplete knowledge of Susan and her life,
such as the commissioner's not being aware of Susan's
first marriage some years earlier.

Is that important?
It would be.
How can a life judgement be made about someone
when those who judge aren't aware of all facts?
Even the minutest detail could change everything.
​The Board didn't make a good show of it;
but then, they didn't need to, did they.

In fairness to this commissioner,
she did at least show interest in Susan's answers to her questions,
regardless of whether or not
she knew the facts about Susan beforehand.
The same cannot be said about all of the commissioners ​at this hearing.
​
Another commissioner's apathy
toward this matter didn't bode well for Susan either.
As the expression goes,
it's not what you say, it's how you say it;
ringing loud and clear in Susan's 1993 parole hearing.
It's obvious to anyone.

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Where Susan was concerned, it made no difference anyway.
The Board didn't need to
know everything about Susan,
nor did they need to be empathetic.
They knew Susan's fate
​ before the hearing even began -

Let's just get this over with
      ​ so we can all go home...


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