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U.S. NEWS Thursday 25 april 2019

Court wonders if it can rule on Manson follower’s parole

By AMANDA LEE MYERS ma from that, and it makes
Associated Press it a very different kind of
LOS ANGELES (AP) — A case from an elected offi-
California appeals court cial’s point of view.”
on Wednesday questioned In denying Van Houten pa-
whether it has jurisdic- role last year, Los Angeles
tion to decide on parole Superior Court Judge Wil-
for Charles Manson fol- liam Ryan found that she
lower Leslie Van Houten or would “pose an unreason-
whether the issue becomes able risk of danger to soci-
moot after the governor ety,” citing the brutal na-
weighs in. ture of the crimes.
Van Houten’s attorney told During one of her parole
a three-judge panel of the hearings, Van Houten said
2nd District Court of Appeal the killings were the start of
that his client is remorseful what Manson believed was
and takes responsibility for a coming race war that he
her crimes. A state prosecu- dubbed “Helter Skelter,”
tor said the 69-year-old has after a Beatles song, and
placed too much blame that he had the group pre-
on Manson himself. pare to fight and learn to
Van Houten was 19 when can food so they could go
she and fellow members of underground and live in a
Manson’s cult stabbed Los hole in the desert.
Angeles grocer Leno La- In this Sept. 6, 2017 file photo Leslie Van Houten reacts after hearing she is eligible for parole during Van Houten said she was
Bianca and his wife, Rose- a hearing at the California Institution for Women in Corona, Calif. traveling up and down
mary, to death in 1969. The Associated Press the California coast when
killings took place a day politician will ever agree to the court should not.” If the decision comes down acquaintances led her to
after other so-called Man- Van Houten’s parole be- The judges gave Pfeiffer to the governor, Pillsbury Manson. She candidly de-
son family members killed cause of the infamy of the and VanderBorght five agreed that Van Houten scribed how she joined sev-
actress Sharon Tate and case. days to file arguments on has an uphill battle. eral other members of the
four others in crimes that “If the courts don’t release the jurisdiction issue. The “The Manson case is one group in killing the LaBian-
shocked the world. Miss Van Houten, she’s nev- judges have three months of a kind,” he said. “There’s cas, carving up Leno LaBi-
Van Houten, who is serving er going to be released,” to decide on Van Houten’s no other case like it in terms anca’s body and smearing
a life sentence, was not in- Pfeiffer said. “The courts are parole. of the number of people in the couple’s blood on the
volved in the other killings. empowered to make dif- A parole board has recom- California who feel strong- walls.
The appeals judges are ficult decisions, and some- mended that Van Houten ly about it, who’ve lived Manson died of natural
reviewing a lower court’s times unpopular decisions, be released three times through it. The entire state causes in 2017 at a Califor-
ruling that denied Van to be able to enforce the since 2016, finding that and much of the nation still nia hospital while serving a
Houten parole last year. law. That’s what courts are she’s no longer a threat to feel some degree of trau- life sentence.q
Since then, a parole board there for. Otherwise it turns society. Former Gov. Jerry
recommended that she be into mob rule.” Brown blocked the first two
freed, a decision undergo- Deputy Attorney General recommendations, and the
ing a five-month review Jill VanderBorght said the third is heading to Newsom.
process before heading to issue should rest with what- Courts in general can be
Gov. Gavin Newsom. ever Newsom decides. She reluctant to interfere in pa-
The judges wondered said Pfeiffer’s argument role matters, said Samuel
whether they still would that Van Houten is unlikely Pillsbury, a criminal law pro-
have jurisdiction to rule to get released without a fessor at Loyola Marymount
if Newsom denies Van court decision was irrele- University in Los Angeles.
Houten parole. vant. “It is highly emotional,” Pills-
Van Houten’s attorney, “We’re only looking at this bury said. “The voters have
Rich Pfeiffer, told the judges single instance of parole re- decided the governor
they not only have jurisdic- versal,” she said. “We don’t should have a veto on this,
tion but a duty to decide, have to think of tomorrow so the courts would prefer
adding that no elected or ever or politics. In fact, to let this process play out.”