LOS ANGELES _ Parole officials were weighing Thursday whether to grant parole to Charles "Tex" Watson, the self-described right-hand man of Charles Manson.
Watson, 70, was sentenced to die in San Quentin's gas chamber for his part in the murder of pregnant actress Sharon Tate and six others during the Manson family's 1969 killing spree in the Los Angeles area.
Watson's sentence was commuted to life in prison after the state Supreme Court ruled that the death penalty was unconstitutional.
Watson is in Mule Creek State Prison in Ione, Calif., about 40 miles outside Sacramento. Behind bars, he has married, divorced, fathered four children and become an ordained minister.
According to a website for Watson's ministry, he works as a janitor and attends Bible study.
Watson has been denied parole 16 times.
Most of the key players in the Manson murders _ including Leslie Van Houten and Patricia Krenwinkel _ continue to serve life sentences with possibility of parole. Most, including Manson, have been denied repeated requests for parole.
In 2009, Manson follower Lynette "Squeaky" Fromme was released from prison.
Manson follower Susan Atkins, who stabbed Tate to death more than 40 years ago, was denied parole even when she was terminally ill.
Atkins died in September 2009.
