One of two murderers, self-described vegetarian Muslim “warriors” known collectively as the “San Francisco Witch Killers,” was denied parole on Wednesday after a California parole board found her unfit for release.
The hearing to evaluate whether Suzan Carson, 73, was fit for temporary release stems from a recent federal court ruling which seeks to reduce overcrowding in prisons by allowing parole hearings for inmates older than 60, and who have served more than 25 years of their sentences.
According to the Associated Press, Carson and her second husband, Michael “Bear” Carson were convicted of killing three people during a drug-fueled “holy war against witches” between 1981 and 1983. Over the course of a 1983 press conference, Michael had said “Witchcraft, homosexuality and abortion are causes for death.”
The AP notes that Michael canceled his own parole hearing in June saying he refused to renounce his violent religious beliefs, writing on the corresponding form that he “know[s] this is absurd…No one is going to parole me because I will not and have not renounced my beliefs.” Officials say he can try for parole again in 2020.
Meanwhile, the AP notes that Suzan seemed disinterested in seeking parole and that she even refused to attend her own hearing. She will reportedly be eligible for parole consideration again in 2030.
“They are pure evil,” Lisa Long, Barnes’s sister, reportedly told the AP on Wednesday. “I am so happy we won’t have to worry about her for another 15 years.”
According to LAist, in 1981 the Muslim warrior witch killers murdered their 22-year-old Upper Haight roommate Karen Barnes by bashing her in the head with a frying pan and stabbing her 13 times. The following year, they killed Clark Stephens of Humboldt County whom they worked with on a marijuana farm. And in 1983, they murdered Jon Charles Hellyar, 30, just outside of Santa Rosa, because he called Suzan a “witch.”
Since February 2014, 267 elderly inmates have reportedly been granted parole and 729 have been denied.
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