One is sickened while writing these words but written they must be. A member of the Manson family is going to go free in a few weeks. Yahoo News reported:
Leslie Van Houten, a follower of Charles Manson who was convicted in two killings, will be paroled in weeks, her attorney said Friday after California’s governor said he would not challenge it at the State Supreme Court.
“She’s thrilled,” Van Houten’s attorney Nancy Tetreault said.
Van Houten, now 73, will be paroled in the next several weeks after spending more than five decades in prison, Tetreault said.
An appeals court ruled in May that Van Houten is eligible for parole, reversing a decision by Gov. Gavin Newsom to reject parole.
Newsom, who has repeatedly blocked efforts for Van Houten to be paroled, had until Monday to file a challenge with the state Supreme Court.
Newsom, a Democrat, said Friday he would not do so.
“The Governor is disappointed by the Court of Appeal’s decision to release Ms. Van Houten but will not pursue further action as efforts to further appeal are unlikely to succeed,” Erin Mellon, spokesperson for the governor’s office, said in a statement.
“The California Supreme Court accepts appeals in very few cases, and generally does not select cases based on this type of fact-specific determination,” the governor’s office said.
Van Houten is serving a life sentence after being convicted along with other cult members of the 1969 killings of Leno and Rosemary LaBianca in Los Angeles.
A jury convicted Van Houten in 1971 of two counts of first-degree murder and one count of conspiracy to commit murder. She was initially sentenced to death, but that was overturned and she has spent 52 years in state prison. Article.
Kingfish note: Van Houten stabbed one victim 14 times. She should swing but instead she will walk the streets a free woman. How civilized.
20 comments:
She should be free to walk the streets as soon as the LaBiancas are
Yeah, the length of her imprisonment is as much cultural / political as it is anything. Although I wholeheartedly agree with KF that she should never step foot out of her prison, people who have committed equally heinous or greater crimes have been let out with much lesser time. The difference is that the other people (a) didn't murder famous people, and (b) other people's crimes weren't sensationalized on the alter of pop culture.
The fact is: if you take a life or lives, you should either lose yours or be separated from the non-prison population until yours ends. Whether or not you believe strong sentences are deterrents, at least it's a deterrent for THAT criminal.
Most of America today is soft and most have short memories.
So the California governor basically said he's disappointed that she's going to be paroled, but not so disappointed to exercise his executive power to stop it. What a dumb and cowardly position. He should at least defend his inaction.
To be specific - "Van Houten described holding Rosemary LaBianca down with a pillowcase over her head as others stabbed her, before herself stabbing the woman more than a dozen times. Afterwards, she helped others in the Manson clan smear the LaBiancas blood on the walls of their home." The Manson gang had "creepy crawled" the home previously to prepare for the murders. Read Vincent Bugliosi's book "Helter Skelter."
@ 6:08 hit the mail on the head!
Gov. Newsom is nothing but far left political and fixin' to throw his hat in the ring for a presidential run. He probably has a theory on how his lack of opposition to her parole could gain him votes.
Some Do-Gooder-Group will give her room and board for the rest of her days or long enough for her to write a book, with the help of a ghostwriter. It will sell thousands of copies and she will move to europe. Maybe she will hire someone as a servant who will get angry one day and knife her.
IJustice would be served if the last sentence in 9:03's post were to come true.
I think she should have been released many years ago.
She did more than enough time in most civilized countries. Let her walk, she harmless. She will probably use what little
time she has to do good.
Long time hard core conservative here -- but
Parole is there for a purpose, and should be used accordingly
I have no idea what the specifics of the Parole Board hearing here found. (Yes,I do know a lot about the case - I was here an active in politics decades ago when this atrocity occurred, so don't try to nail me there.)
Parole is to be based not only on the facts of the case as it originally happened, but on all the activities of the individual since. And to be considered is the condition of the perp at the time.
If you don't like parole ----change the law. Or don't hold parole board members responsible for imparting the law as they exist at the time they are required to take action. "
Same thing could be said about Mississippi's Parole Board's recent actions (not covering for the pimp that serves as chairman, but recognizing the responsibility of the other four members who are all charged with institutng the laws of the state in their duties.)
If the state laws say that an individual is eligible for parole "if" -----
And the individual meets all the requirements of "if" -----
And you don't like the fact twhat an individual several decades ago did x, and while being incarcerated and suppposedly rehabilitated, did what the system was charged with doing --- rehabilitation -- so therefore they qualify to be paroled according to the laws passed by the legislature, then shit! They can get paroled.
Same with the two recent local MS cases. If the prison system is established to be a rehabilitation operation ----- and it succeeds --- then don't blame the Parole Board for doing its job and instituting the provisions the legislature provides when it paroles someone. YES, I AM SPEAKING TO YOU, LEGISLATORS, THAT DON'T LIKE THE BOARD DOING WHAT IT IS CHARGED WITH DOING, UNDER YOUR LAWS.
And no - I am not on the Parold Board. Never have been. Not connected to anyone that is on the board. And never asked for a parole.
If you don't want someone out --- legislature, you have the ability to say so. You don't want rehabilitation, say so. Lock them up (thank you DJT, maybe you should think twice about that manta) and keep them there forever. Or --- use the system to try to rehabilitate (which is what it seems to me the current Commissioner is trying to do.) Or ---- never let any of them out --- feed them, medicate them, whatever.
I don't want the bad folks on the street again. Never have, stll don't. But I do give those folks that have to make these decisions (Parole Board members) some degree of respect for their intelligence and think they are thinking through all the arguments, not just the press release headlines, before they make their final decisions.
I was graduating college that year and assumed she was ultra-stoned. I don't alibi for her or attempt forgiveness, just trying to state my beliefs. Over the years, that's the only explanation I've been able to come up with. Not weed, but more serious drugs.
The California Way-
Why are you writing this story like an 8th grader who read Shakespeare for the first time?
9:21 - Are you typing from your church pew? Listen to the woman in the pulpit. Benefit from her admonition to not deride others on Sundays.
Terrible, terrible I tell you. But the thing that may be worse is there are people walking the streets of Jackson that have done worse.
"She will probably use what little
time she has to do good. "
Yeah - because so many other psychotic lunatics have reformed themselves and done that. Why don't you name us all the examples of when that happened?
We'll wait......
@ 11:53. Sorry to keep you waiting. I know several but will not name them for your amusement. One in particular returned from Vietnam to find his wife in bed with another man. Shot the man and tossed the body in the river. Ruled psychotic by staff at state mental hospital. Time served.
Later convicted in another state for being involved in credit card fraud. Sentenced. Served. Now for the past twenty years has led a successful prison ministry. Welcome home, indeed.
And there are thousands of other similar stories.
It would be interesting to know how many of Manson's followers were potheads before they were lured into the cult (Otherwise, how could anybody be so stupid?). That member of the Beach Boys surely was already a druggie. And how many were suffering from Marijuana Psychosis, when they committed their various hideous acts?
It's only recently become widely known, that the Germans doing unthinkable things, were mostly on serious drugs, when they burned-alive entire villages of innocent Byelorussians (among other unbelievable acts). Now, I'm wondering the same things about the 'Manson Family'.
I'm trying to imagine what type of exemplary existence she could have lived during her 50-year stay in prison, that would even come close to diminishing the pre-meditated, grisley murder of a couple, and then smearing their blood throughout the house. SMH
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