Governor Jerry Brown is denying the parole of Leslie Van Houten which a State Parole Board had recommended.
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The Board of Parole Hearings recommended Van Houten’s release early this year.
Brown noted in his statement that Van Houten “earned bachelor’s and master’s degrees while in prison, where she has received positive commendations from staff”, as Reuters reported.
However, Van Houten has said she committed the crime because she was manipulated by Manson and that she was following his orders, claims that were refuted by Brown in his decision.
Leslie Van Houten, 66, was recommended for parole in April after serving more than 40 years in prison for her role in the savage murders of Leno LaBianca and his wife, Rosemary, in their suburban LA home on August 10, 1969.
After the killing, Van Houten changed into the victim’s clothes and drank chocolate milk from the couple’s refrigerator, according to the statement of facts regarding her case.
“She remains an unacceptable risk to society if released”, he wrote in a five-page review that denied Van Houten parole for the 20th time.
“It remains unclear how and why Van Houten drastically transformed from an exceptionally smart, driven young woman, class secretary and homecoming princess, to a member of one of the most notorious cults in history”, Brown wrote in his decision.
“Both her 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 unacceptable risk to society if released”, Brown wrote.
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. Charles Manson, now 81, is also serving a life sentence.
Former Manson follower Bruce Davis was approved for parole but Gov. He was originally sentenced to death for orchestrating a slew of vicious crimes, but changes to US capital punishment laws resulted in his sentence being commuted.
At 19, Van Houten was the youngest follower of Charles Manson to take part in killings he orchestrated in hopes of fomenting a race war that he dubbed “Helter Skelter”, after a Beatles song.
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Patricia Krenwinkel – She also had her death penalty commuted. Van Houten was not involved in the Tate murders. She was tried two more times for the murders: The first trial ended in a hung jury, the second, in 1978, ended with a guilty verdict and a sentence of life in prison.
