SACRAMENTO, Jan. 26 – Attorney General John Van de Kamp has asked the state Supreme Court to overturn two lower-court decisions — one involving Charles “Tex” Watson at the California Men’s Colony — which would require annual parole hearings for 350 convicted murderers.

The appeal is based on a decision Judge William R. Fredman of the San Luis Obispo County Superior Court handed down last year to inmate Lawrence Jackson, serving time at CMC for a 1961 murder conviction.

Watson, who is serving time at CMC for his conviction of seven murders in the 1969 Tate-LaBianca killings masterminded by Charles Manson, and Jackson asked Fredman to decide if they should be allowed annual parole hearings.

A state appeals court in Ventura last month affirmed Fredman’s ruling that a state law allowing the parole board to wait two or three years between parole hearings, instead of holding them annually, could not be applied to prisoners who were sentenced before the law took effect in 1983.

The 2nd District Court of Appeal said the board had violated the rights of Jackson and Watson.

The Jackson decision, which was given precedent-making effect by the court, would require annual hearings for about 350 prisoners whose subsequent hearings were delayed two or three years by the Board of Prison Terms since 1983, said the board’s executive officer, William Elliott.

In appealing to the Supreme Court, Van de Kamp’s office said annual hearings for prisoners like Jackson and Watson would be an “idle act” because there is virtually no chance they would be found suitable for parole.

Van de Kamp’s appeal, by Deputy Attorney General Donald Roeschke, said, “A person such as Watson who endeavored to create race wars while a member of the Charles Manson family clearly will not be deemed suitable for parole.” Roeschke said.

“Therefore, all that is accomplished by mandating annual parole hearings is to cause the families of the victims more anguish and consume more time of the Board of Prison Terms.”