Sarah Jane Olsen Gets 20 years to life

errorLOS ANGELES (AP) -
Former Symbionese Liberation Army fugitive
Sara Jane Olson was sentenced Friday to 20
years to life in prison for conspiring to blow
up police cars in 1975. Following tearful
statements from family and friends, Olson said
she was ``truly sorry'' for causing anyone any pain.
But she denied trying to murder officers by
planting bombs under the two Los Angeles
police cars to avenge the deaths of six SLA members during a
shootout with authorities in 1974. The bombs didn't explode.

Superior Court Judge Larry Fidler sentenced Olson to two
consecutive terms of 10 years to life.

Immediately afterward, Olson pleaded innocent to robbery and
murder charges in another decades-old crime: the 1975 SLA
bank holdup in which a bystander, Myrna Opsahl, was killed.

Olson has long denied taking part in the robbery in Carmichael,
a suburb of Sacramento. Four other former SLA members also
face charges in the case; two of them, former couple Bill and
Emily Harris, were expected to enter innocent pleas in a
Sacramento courtroom later Friday.

Olson, 54, was a fugitive in the bombing conspiracy case for
more than 20 years until her arrest two years ago in Minnesota.
She had changed her name from Kathleen Soliah, married a
doctor and had three children.

Before Olson was sentenced, her daughter sobbed aloud as she
told the court: ``She is one of the best mothers anybody would
ever want.''

Olson chocked back tears as her husband, Gerald Peterson, said
the two had been happily married for 23 years.

``To my lovely wife Sara, California is now entrusted to clothe
you, to feed you, shelter you and correct you and try you,'' he
said. ``But this family of ours and our dear friends will not be
diminished in our love for you and our respect for you. We will
always stand by you until you come home.''

When her turn to speak came, Olson addressed her family and
friends.

``I still maintain I didn't participate in events in Los Angeles,''
she said. ``I hope you'll forgive me the pain I have brought you.
... I am a person in court today who truly, while grateful for all
that I had - my life has had quite a lot as you can see.

``For any mistakes that I have made, I accept responsibility for
any pain I have caused. I accept responsibility and I am truly
sorry.''

The SLA began in the fall of 1973 when a handful of white,
college-educated children of middle-class families adopted a
seven-headed snake as their symbol, a black ex-convict as their
leader and the phrase, ``Death to the fascist insect that preys
upon the life of the people'' as their slogan.

The group derived its name from ``symbiosis,'' a biological term
referring to unlike organisms coexisting harmoniously for mutual
benefit.

The SLA claimed responsibility for the murder of Oakland Schools
Superintendent Marcus Foster, because he supposedly favored
a police plan for students to carry identification.

But the group is best known for the 1974 kidnapping of
newspaper heiress Patricia Hearst, who later joined the group in
robbing banks and could become a key witness in the
Carmichael trials.

The long-dormant case gathered legal momentum after Olson's
arrest. Prosecutors say they have new information, and the FBI
has linked shotgun pellets found in Opsahl's body to ammunition
from an SLA house.

Court files also say Olson's palm print matches prints on the
door of a Sacramento garage where the group stored a
getaway car.

Olson's bombing case had seesawed since Oct. 31, when she
announced a surprise decision to plead guilty to possessing
bombs with intent to murder police officers.

Her plea was immediately thrown into question when she told
reporters she was really innocent and had pleaded guilty
because the Sept. 11 attacks had created a climate in which
anyone accused of domestic terrorism could not be acquitted.

She was ordered back into court, where she eventually lost a
battle to withdraw her plea and go to trial.

John Hall, one of the Los Angeles officers targeted that long-ago
day, also testified Friday. He described seeing a child in a
restaurant window the night the bomb was discovered.

``Your honor, it horrifies me to think that the lives of dozens of
innocent people, like that child in the window, would have ended
in an instant had the defendant and co-conspirator successfully
carried out their terrorist acts,'' he said.