California Gov. Gavin Newsom, who previously blocked parole attempts, said Friday he would not challenge Van Houten’s release in state Supreme Court, NBC News reported. The pardon commission concluded that the prisoner “no longer represents an unreasonable danger to public safety” and repented of her act.
Van Houten was originally sentenced to death for the murders of Leno and Rosemary La Bianca on August 10, 1969. Then Manson and another member of his cult, Charles Watson, entered the couple’s home and tied them up. According to court records, Manson came out and told Van Houten and another person to go inside and follow Watson’s instructions. On the eve of Watson and other members of the cult killed the wife of director Roman Polanski, actress Sharon Tate and others in their home.
Van Houten’s release request has been denied 19 times. Imprisoned for more than 50 years, she was considered a model prisoner. Van Houten is the second of six Manson cult members convicted of murder and initially sentenced to death.
Most of their death sentences were commuted to life imprisonment in a 1972 court decision that outlawed the death penalty. The death penalty was later reinstated in California. In 1971, a judge commuted Steve Grogan’s death sentence to life imprisonment, and in 1985 he was paroled. Manson himself died in a prison hospital in 2017. Watson and Patricia Krenwinkel are still serving life sentences. Susan Atkins died in prison in 2009.
A relative of one of the people killed by the Manson Family in the 1960s, who regularly attended parole hearings for cult members, said Van Houten’s release was “a failure of the parole system.” “.
