Global Courant
LOS ANGELES (AP) — The governor of California announced Friday that he will not ask the state Supreme Court to block the parole of Charles Manson follower Leslie Van Houten.
In a brief statement, the governor’s office said it was unlikely the state’s Supreme Court would consider an appeal against a lower court ruling that Van Houten should be released.
Newsom is disappointed, the statement said.
“More than 50 years after the Manson cult committed these brutal murders, the families of the victims are still feeling the impact,” the statement said.
Van Houten, now in his 70s, is serving a life sentence for aiding Manson and other followers in the 1969 murder of Leno LaBianca, a Los Angeles grocer, and his wife Rosemary.
Van Houten could be released in about two weeks after the parole board reviews her criminal record and processes paperwork for her release from the California Institution for Women in Corona, her attorney Nancy Tetreault said.
She was recommended for parole five times since 2016, but Newsom and former governor Jerry Brown rejected all those recommendations.
However, a state appeals court ruled in May that Van Houten should be released, citing what it called her “extraordinary rehabilitation efforts, insight, remorse, realistic plans for parole, support from family and friends” and favorable prison behavior records.
“She’s excited and she’s overwhelmed,” Tetreault said.
“She’s just grateful that people are acknowledging that she’s not the same person she was when she committed the murders,” she said.
After she’s released, Van Houten will spend about a year in a shelter, learning basic skills like going to the grocery store and getting an ATM card, Tetreault said.
She has been in prison for 53 years. … She just needs to learn how to use an ATM, let alone a cell phone, let alone a computer,” her lawyer said.
Van Houten and other Manson followers murdered the LaBiancas in their home in August 1969, then smeared their blood on the walls. Van Houten later described holding Rosemary LaBianca with a pillowcase over her head while others stabbed her, before stabbing the woman over a dozen times.
Story continues
“My family and I are heartbroken as we are once again reminded of all the years we didn’t have my father and my stepmother with us,” Cory LaBianca, the daughter of Leno LaBianca, told The Associated Press in a phone interview Friday.
“My kids and my grandkids never got a chance to get to know any of them, which has been a huge void for my family,” says Cory La Bianca, who is 75.
The LaBianca murders occurred the day after Manson supporters killed actress Sharon Tate and four others. Van Houten took no part in the Tate murders.
Manson died of natural causes in prison in 2017 at the age of 83 after nearly half a century behind bars.
