LOS ANGELES, Jul. 3 – Doris Tate, mother of actress Sharon Tate, killed by the notorious Charles Manson “family,” has begun a campaign for tougher parole laws designed to keep her daughter’s murderers in prison.

“I just don’t understand why they should get parole when they were originally given the death penalty,” said she told a new conference called by a group called Parents of Murdered Children.

“Does the punishment fit the crime? No, it does not.”

Mrs. Tate said she has gathered more than 10,000 signatures on a petition to counter a petition circulated by a group called Friends of the Manson Family, which obtained 900 signatures to free family members convicted of murder.

Sharon Tate was one of five people killed in 1969 at the home she shared with her husband, director Roman Polanski. The same Manson followers were also convicted of killing two other people two nights later.

Others of the band are serving time for various other killings. All have had at least one parole hearing, but none has been released.

Convicted murderers in California are usually eligible for parole after serving seven years.