Manson follower Leslie Van Houten released from prison and is under parole supervision
Charles Manson follower Leslie Van Houten walked out of a California prison Tuesday after serving 53 years of a life sentence for her participation in two infamous murders.
The California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation said Van Houten "was released to parole supervision."
Her release comes days after Gov. Gavin Newsom announced he would not fight a state appeals court ruling that Van Houten should be granted parole.
Van Houten, now 73, received a life sentence for helping Manson's followers carry out the 1969 killings of Leno LaBianca, a grocer in Los Angeles, and his wife, Rosemary. During the gruesome murder, Van Houten held Rosemary down with a pillowcase over her head as she stabbed her a dozen times.
She was released from prison in the early morning hours and driven to transitional housing, her attorney Nancy Tetreault said.
In a split ruling in May, a state appeals court panel reinstated a grant of parole for the former Manson follower overturning an earlier decision by Newsom to block her release.
In the 2-1 ruling 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.
The Governor's Office said days ago that while he is disappointed by the Court of Appeal's decision to release Ms. Van Houten, he will not pursue further action as efforts to further appeal are unlikely to succeed.
The highly contentious decision has elicited strong reactions from both sides of the argument over whether Van Houten deserved to be released.
"I have been advocating for Leslie since I retired from the Associated Press," said retired reporter Linda Deutsch, who extensively covered the Manson arrests and trial since the beginning. The pair have kept in touch over the years, exchanging letters. "Leslie has been the poster girl for rehabilitation. If there was such a thing in prison, there isn't much. She is way above anybody else's rehabilitation."
Deutsch says that Van Houten earned both a Bachelor's degree and a Master's degree while in prison, and that she would do "every self help group that they had" over the last five decades of imprisonment.
For others, her release rehashes memories of a tumultuous time in United States history, highlighted by a drastic increase in violent crimes.
The grandson of the LaBianca's, who has spoken to CBS News in the past about his opposition to her release, said that he would not be making any statements.