A former member of Charles Manson’s “family,” who was convicted in the murder of actress Sharon Tate in 1969, is likely to be released from prison because she is near death due to an undisclosed terminal illness.

 Terry Thornton, a state corrections spokeswoman, said Susan Atkins, 59, was terminally ill and considered for so-called “compassionate release.” Thornton added that, according to a doctor, Atkins had less than six months to live.

If the corrections department approves the request, it will be passed to the state Board of Parole, which is entitled to release Atkins under state law so she can join her family before death.

Releases of this kind are quite rare, with only 10 of the 60 requests made last year being granted, Thornton said, according to the Associated Press. To be released, the ill prisoners need to have several family members willing to care for them.

Atkins, who has been in state prison 37 years, longer than any other female inmate in California, was one of Manson’s followers who broke into a Beverly Hills home 39 years ago and killed Tate, the wife of director Roman Polanski. Tate was 8 ½ months pregnant at the time. The following night, the same group of people stabbed to death a wealthy couple in their home in Los Angeles.

Atkins has previously requested parole 11 times, but was denied every time, most recently in 2005. She has spent 37 years in the California Institution for Women in Corona, but she was moved in a hospital in the month of March.