Appeals court rules Manson follower Leslie Van Houten should be paroled

A California appeals court ruled 2-1 on Tuesday that Leslie Van Houten, a follower of cult leader Charles Manson who participated in two murders at his direction, is entitled to parole.

Since 2016, Van Houten, 73, has been recommended for parole five times, with the Board of Parole Hearings saying in 2020 she does not "pose an unreasonable risk to public safety." California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) and his predecessor, Gov. Jerry Brown (D), rejected parole for Van Houten on every occasion, and this is the first time a court has overruled the governor's rejection of parole for a Manson follower, the Los Angeles Times reports.

In August 1969, Van Houten, then 19, and several other Manson followers stabbed to death husband and wife Leno and Rosemary LaBianca in their Los Angeles home. Two years later, Van Houten was convicted of murder and sentenced to death; in 1972, when capital punishment was ruled unconstitutional in California, her sentence was commuted to life in prison. Her case was overturned on appeal, and in a retrial, she was convicted of murder and conspiracy to murder and sentenced to life in prison with the possibility of parole.

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In 2022, Newsom said he denied Van Houten's parole because she posed an "unreasonable danger" if released and he found her explanation of how she became influenced by Manson inadequate. On Tuesday, the judges on California's 2nd District Court of Appeal wrote that when making his decision, Newsom did not take into account "the decades of therapy, self-help programing and reflection Van Houten has undergone in the past 50 years."

Van Houten's lawyer, Nancy Tetreault, said she believes California Attorney General Rob Bonta will go to the state Supreme Court and ask for a review of the appellate court's decision and a stay on the ruling. "I will, of course, vigorously oppose any stay," Tetreault told The Associated Press. "And they could let her out during that process."