Calif. again recommends parole for Manson follower Van Houten

Jan. 31 (UPI) -- For the third time in the last 40 years, the California parole board is recommending parole for Charles Manson conspirator Leslie Van Houten, who participated in a double murder a half-century ago.

The release of Van Houten, the youngest member of Manson's convicted associates, is now in the hands of new California Gov. Gavin Newsom after the board made its recommendation Wednesday.

Van Houten was 19 when she participated in the killings of Rosemary and Leno LaBianca in Los Feliz, Calif., in 1969. She was originally sentenced to death in 1978, but the penalty was commuted to seven years to life in prison when the state abolished capital punishment.

Former Gov. Jerry Brown blocked her release the last two times the parole board ruled in her favor, in 2016 and 2017, finding her "an unreasonable danger to society."

Van Houten, now 69, has expressed remorse for the high-profile killings, which are usually mentioned with the killing of actress Sharon Tate one day earlier. Van Houten was not implicated in that attack.

"I take responsibility for the entire crime," Van Houten said in her last parole hearing in 2017. "I take responsibility going back to Manson being able to do what he did to all of us. I allowed it."

"I was easy to give over my belief system to someone else. I sought peer attention and acceptance more than I did my own foundation."

Van Houten, imprisoned at the California Institution for Women, now goes through a 150-day review process. Newsom could block the release or take no action, which would allow her to go free. The families of her victims have repeatedly opposed her release.

Manson died of natural causes in Kern County, Calif., in 2017 at the age of 83. He spent the last 46 years of his life in prison.

Van Houten's attorneys say she's earned bachelor's and master's degrees and runs self-help groups for incarcerated women.