Gov. Gavin Newsom will not challenge a California appellate court’s decision to allow parole for Leslie Van Houten, moving the former follower of Charles Manson closer to release following more than 50 years behind bars.
“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,” Newsom’s communications director, Erin Mellon, said in a statement Friday.
Van Houten, 73, is serving a life sentence for helping Manson and members of the cult leader’s “family” kill Los Angeles grocer Leno LaBianca and his wife, Rosemary, in August 1969.
