California governor Gavin Newsom has blocked parole for Charles Manson follower Leslie Van Houten, reversing a panel's recommendation that she be freed after spending half a century in prison.
Van Houten, 72, "currently poses an unreasonable danger to society if released from prison at this time", Mr Newsom said in his parole review on Tuesday. It was the fifth time that a California governor has rejected her release.
Her lawyer Rich Pfeiffer disputed that view and said the decision will be appealed in court. He accused Mr Newsom of rejecting parole because he is worried about "his political future" and noted that Van Houten has a spotless prison disciplinary record.
"We're not fighting (over) Leslie being a good person. She's proven that through her actions for half a century," he said.
Van Houten is serving a life sentence for helping Manson and others kill Los Angeles grocer Leno LaBianca and his wife, Rosemary, in August 1969. Van Houten was 19 when she and other cult members fatally stabbed the LaBiancas and smeared the couple's blood on the walls.
The day before, other Manson followers, not including Van Houten, killed pregnant actress Sharon Tate and four others.
In his rejection letter, Mr Newsom noted that Van Houten had undergone therapy, earned educational degrees and taken self-help classes in prison and had shown "increased maturity and rehabilitation."
But Van Houten also has "gaps in insight" that continue to make her a danger to society, he said.
Van Houten has had 21 parole hearings since 1982. Most parole boards denied her bid for freedom. But five panels have recommended her release since 2016, saying she had expressed remorse and was no longer a threat to public safety.
Mr Newsom rejected a recommendation made last November.
He previously reversed parole recommendations in 2019 and 2020. In February, the California Supreme Court refused to hear Van Houten's appeal of the 2020 rejection.
Previous governor Jerry Brown rejected Van Houten's parole in 2016 and 2018.
Manson died in 2017 of natural causes at a California hospital while serving a life sentence.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel