Charles Manson, Van Houten and other followers were convicted for the 1969 murders of supermarket executive Leno LaBianca and his wife, Rosemary.
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Van Houten has admitted to stabbing Rosemary La Bianca more than a dozen times, and her accomplices killed La Bianca’s husband, Leno.
According to CNN, The Board of Parole Hearings granted Van Houten parole earlier this year, citing that she was known as a “model prisoner who worked well with other inmates”.
Governor Jerry Brown explained in a statement his decision to deny parole, writing, “Both [Van Houten’s] role in these extraordinarily brutal crimes and her inability to explain her willing participation in such horrific violence can not be overlooked and lead me to believe she remains an unreasonable risk to society if released”, per Rolling Stone. Relatives of Van Houten’s victims signed a petition opposing her release which garnered 140,000 signatures.
Manson, also serving a life sentence, directed Van Houten and his other mostly young, female followers – known as the Manson Family – to murder seven people that month in what prosecutors said was part of a plan to incite a race war between whites and blacks.
However, Van Houten’s lawyer, Rich Pfeiffer, said the governor’s response was expected and that he will challenge the decision in Los Angeles County Superior Court.
The murders were created to start a race war in America. “I don’t find parts in any of this that makes me feel the slightest bit good about myself”, she said during the hearing.
Van Houten was initially sentenced to death in 1971 for her role in the Tate-LaBianca murders, but that sentence was overturned to life imprisonment the following year.
Brown said it was unclear how Van Houten, a former homecoming queen from suburban Monrovia, California, transformed from a “smart, driven young woman” into a killer.
Charles Manson – The 81-year-old remains at a California state prison in Corcoran. Davis was convicted of first-degree murder and conspiracy for the July 25, 1969, stabbing death of musician Gary Hinsman in his Topanga Canyon home and the killing of Donald “Shorty” Shea, who was last seen alive on August 27, 1969.
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Onetime Manson family member Susan Atkins died in September 2009, about three weeks after a state parole board panel rejected her plea for a “compassionate release” from prison because of brain cancer.
