LOS ANGELES (CNS) - Former Charles Manson follower Leslie Van Houten, who has served more than 52 years in state prison for her part in the August 1969 slayings of Leno and Rosemary LaBianca in their Los Feliz home, is expected to be released on parole within the next few weeks, authorities said.
Her pending release comes after Gov. Gavin Newsom announced Friday that he would not challenge a state appellate court panel's May ruling that Van Houten, now 73, is eligible for parole.
The court ruling reversed a decision by Newsom rejecting Van Houten's parole.
Newsom could have appealed the decision to the California Supreme Court.
"More than 50 years after the Manson cult committed these brutal offenses, the victims' families still feel the impact, as do all Californians," Erin Mellon, the governor's communications director, said in a written statement. "Governor Newsom reversed Ms. Van Houten's parole grant three times since taking office and defended against her challenges of those decisions in court. 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."
Van Houten's attorney Nancy Tetreault told reporters "She's thrilled," at the prospect of being released.
Cory LaBianca, the 75-year-old daughter of Leno LaBianca and stepdaughter of Rosemary LaBianca, has repeatedly opposed Van Houten's release while acknowledging that she has done some good things while behind bars including earning bachelor's and master's degrees, running self-help groups and facilitating victim-offender reconciliation sessions.
Still, Cory LaBianaca said those good works do not negate Vsn Houten's role in the 1969 slayings
"We all need to be held responsible for our behavior," she told the Los Angeles Times in 2016. "The least we can do, for someone who commits a crime against another human being, is to keep them in jail."
On Friday, she told reporters she was "heartbroken" Van Houten, will soon be released.
The LaBianca murders occurred Aug. 10, 1969, one day after Manson followers killed five people at the Benedict Canyon hone of film director Roman Polanski, including his pregnant wife, actress Sharon Tate.
Van Houten was convicted of murder and conspiracy for participating with fellow Manson family members Charles "Tex" Watson and Patricia Krenwinkel in the killings of grocer Leno LaBianca, 44, and his 38-year-old wife, Rosemary, who were each stabbed multiple times in their Los Feliz home.
The former Monrovia High School cheerleader -- who was 19 at the time - - did not participate in the Benedict Canyon murders.
In a 2-1 ruling in May by the panel from California's 2nd District Court of Appeal, Associate Justice Helen I. Bendix wrote, "`Van Houten has shown extraordinary rehabilitative efforts, insight, remorse, realistic parole plans, support from family and friends, favorable institutional reports, and, at the time of the governor's decision, had received four successive grants of parole.
"... Under these circumstances Van Houten's unchanging historical risk factors do not provide some evidence that she is currently dangerous and unsuitable for parole," Bendix wrote, with Associate Justice Victoria Gerrard Chaney concurring in the 58-page ruling that reversed the governor's 2022 rejection and reinstated the grant of parole for Van Houten.
In a dissenting opinion, Presiding Justice Frances Rothschild concluded that "the record contains some evidence Van Houten lacked insight into the commitment offense" and found that was sufficient when "coupled with the heinous nature of that crime" to "provide some evidence of current dangerousness and support the governor's decision."
Newsom had blocked parole for Van Houten in March 2022, writing that, "Given the extreme nature of the crime in which she was involved, I do not believe she has sufficiently demonstrated that she has come to terms with the totality of the factors that led her to participate in the vicious Manson Family killings. Before she can be safely released, Ms. Van Houten must do more to develop her understanding of the factors that caused her to seek acceptance from such a negative, violent influence, and perpetrate extreme acts of wanton violence."
His decision came after a state board recommended parole for Van Houten in November 2021, marking the fifth time for such a decision.
A request in May 2020 to release Van Houten, who was then 70, on bail or her own recognizance due to her high risk of contracting COVID-19 was also denied.
Four earlier parole recommendations for Van Houten also were rejected by governors, including Newsom.
For now, Van Houten remains behind bars at the California Institution for Women in Corona, according to records from the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation.