Manson cult follower involved in 2 deaths should be released, says prison board
A follower of cult leader Charles Manson involved in two killings has been recommended for parole, but faces a fight against her release.
A California appeals court ruled on Tuesday that Leslie Van Houten, 73, should be released from prison on parole.
The decision by the court overturns the parole rejection by Governor Gavin Newsom in 2020.
Governor Newsom rejected the recommendation; Van Houten has been recommended for parole five times since 2016.
All of those recommendations were rejected by either Mr Newsom, who has said that Van Houten still poses a danger to society, or former Governor Jerry Brown.
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Mr Newsom has said Van Houen has never offered a good enough expansion for her involvement with Manson, but the parole board said there is “no evidence to support the Governor’s conclusions” about the inmate's fitness for parole.
The Manson family was involved in multiple murders including that of Sharon Tate (AFP/Getty Images)The governor could request that California Attorney General Rob Bonta petition the state Supreme Court to stop her release.
Van Houten is serving a life sentence for helping Manson and other followers kill Leno LaBianca, a grocer in Los Angeles, and his wife, Rosemary.
Van Houten was 19 when she and other cult members stabbed the LaBiancas to death in August 1969. She said they carved up Leno LaBianca’s body and smeared the couple’s blood on the walls.
The killings took place the day after Manson and his followers murdered pregnant actress Sharon Tate, though van Houten was not involved.
Van Houten at a previous parole meeting in 2002 (AFP via Getty Images)Sharon Tate was killed along with Jay Sebring by the heinous cult. Sebring's nephew Anthony DiMaria blasted the appellate court decision.
"To say the appellate court’s decision is a travesty of justice is a perverse understatement," he said. "When you look at the profound, horrific nature of her crimes and the historic scars she has dealt American culture, it is unconscionable that an appellate court would make amends for Leslie Van Houten."
At her parole hearings, Van Houten discussed at length how her parents’ divorce, her drug and alcohol abuse, and a forced illegal abortion led her down a path that left her vulnerable to him.
Manson family members Susan Atkins, Patricia Krenwinkle, and Leslie Van Houten (Bettmann Archive)The Second District Court of Appeal in Los Angeles ruled 2-1 to reverse Mr Newsom’s decision.
“Van Houten has shown extraordinary rehabilitative efforts, insight, remorse, realistic parole plans, support from family and friends, favourable institutional reports, and, at the time of the Governor’s decision, had received four successive grants of parole,” the judges wrote.
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“Although the Governor states Van Houten’s historical factors ‘remain salient,’ he identifies nothing in the record indicating Van Houten has not successfully addressed those factors through many years of therapy, substance abuse programming, and other efforts.”
Charles Manson in court (Michael Ochs Archives)A dissenting judge agreed with Mr Newsom and said Van Houten had not shown enough insight into the killings.
Now, the Democrat governor may choose to request Mr Bonta to ask the state Supreme Court to review the decision.
This process, Van Houten's attorney Nancy Tetreault argued, could take years.
Ms Tetreault said: "I will, of course, vigorously oppose any stay. They could let her out during that process."
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