Leslie Van Houten, a former follower of bloodthirsty “guru” Charles Manson, was released from prison on Tuesday after serving more than 50 years behind bars for a double murder in 1969, California prison authorities have confirmed.
In the summer of 1969, members of Charles Manson’s satanic cult had sowed terror in Los Angeles, committing at least nine gruesome murders there. Among her victims was actress and model Sharon Tate, then married to filmmaker Roman Polanski.
AFP
Leslie Van Houten, a supporter of the Manson Family, was found guilty of involvement in the August 1969 murders of Leno and Rosemary LaBianca at their home. Initially sentenced to death, she eventually received a life sentence after several prison sentences.
Van Houten, now 73, “was released on parole on July 11, 2023,” the California Department of Corrections told AFP in a statement.
The American judiciary had ruled in favor of his conditional release five times. But each time, the governors of California, Jerry Brown and then Gavin Newsom, vetoed it.
When he was last rejected in 2022, Mr Newsom had argued that this woman “represented too great a danger to society at this time”.
At the end of May, a California appeals court overturned this veto. The judges ruled that there was “no evidence to support the governor’s conclusions.” They referred to their exemplary prisoner behavior and their “decades of therapy”.
Following that decision, Mr. Newsom decided not to ask the court to bring the case to the California Supreme Court, a process that could have taken several years.
“The governor is disappointed by the appeals court’s decision to release Ms. Van Houten but will not take any further action given the slim chance of success,” one of his porters said on Saturday.
However, the victims’ families “are still feeling the brutal effects” of the killings committed by the Manson family, she added.
Ms Van Houten’s attorney said she was “very glad” that this release came “so quickly” after the governor’s resignation.
The ex-convict must now “spend a year in a reintegration center to acquire the skills needed to cope in a world that has changed dramatically over the past five decades,” Nancy Tetreault said in a press release.
According to the lawyer, she will also “seek employment in areas based on the diplomas (…) that she obtained in prison.”