That day the California State Supreme Court announced that it had voted 6–1 to abolish the death penalty in the state of California. The opinion was based on Article I, Section 6, of the State Constitution, which forbids “cruel or unusual punishment.”* The sentences of the 107 persons awaiting execution in California were automatically reduced to life imprisonment. Manson, in Los Angeles as a defense witness in the Bruce Davis trial, grinned broadly on hearing the news. In California a person sentenced to life imprisonment is eligible to apply for parole in seven years.
