Leslie Van Houten was released yesterday. Should she have been?

She served her time. I don’t see her as a danger to anyone today. What good does it do to keep her in prison?

Regardless of the horrificness of the crime, what goal is filled by keeping her locked up?

This sort of consideration is exactly why I’m a big supporter of the death sentence. To me, life in prison or things like this where the majority of your life is spent in jail are cruel and unusual.

The Manson family killings were brutal and premeditated. They showed a level of behavior and attitude from the killers that is not normally seen. Van Houten was 19 when she committed the crimes. Her friends at the time were all Manson Family members…that was her life. She is now 72 if my math is right. It is highly likely that her parents are dead. She had at least one sibling that is probably not far from her age one way or the other. She will have no one to turn to that could help her rejoin society. She is too old to get a job and I’m not sure who would hire her anyway. She brings a stigma with her. She could write a book about her exploits but I’m not sure how that would go over. So she is going to move from prison to a limbo in society. That just seems cruel to me. But I don’t know what the future brings, I can only speculate.

I believe in second chances and that people cjange. At 19 I did thing’s I regret so I’m all for it, plus Manson was a master manipulator, she had no chance.

@seawulf575 I agree that she will probably have no where to turn. It’s like releasing her into the wild.
I was watching a Dr. Phil segment on the Idaho murders. This was the 4 college students that were murdered.
Part of the segment was discussing how one of the roommates saw the killer, but didn’t call the police for 8 hours.
Every single person on that panel mentioned that she was only 19 and that her mind wasn’t fully developed and she didn’t know what to do.
I have to agree that at 19, you aren’t ready for the world yet.

I just looked at the NY Times article from yesterday about it. It said that her sentence was 7 years to life. I guess she got closer to “life” and since she’s most likely not a risk to society, it’s ok. She’s on parole now, so she’ll be monitored. She is living in transitional housing so that takes care of who she’s going to stay with. I was thinking it must be hard to go from being told when to wake up, eat, go to sleep, everything but if she’s in transitional housing I guess that will still be on a schedule.

I’m ok with it. Other people have done way worse and gotten less prison time.

I’ll take a stab at answering this:

@jca2 Her original sentence was death, but when the Death Penalty was ruled unconstitutional in the early 1970s and had to be reinstituted by the states, her sentence was commuted to “7 to life” with possibility of parole.

For those of us that lived in California in the late 60s/early 70s, the Tate/LaBianca murders were a particularly gruesome addition to a number of murder sprees going on at the time. We were also dealing with the Zodiac killer and the Zebra killers. Knowing Van Houten was safely behind bars relieved much anxiety, even if Squeaky Fromme was still running around devoted to Charlie Manson.

@zenvelo Oh, ok. Thanks.

@zenvelo “take a stab at…” —clever choice of words

I don’t know how much truth there is to this, but I heard that certain groups want her to run for political office.

^^ I see several “Van Houtens” running for office or in politics, but no Leslie. Can you give us a citation?

As for parole, she should have been released 10 years ago, imo.

Her release likely frees up space for a more violent offender that can’t be housed now. It is probably a good tradeoff.

@chyna I’ve heard the claims of her age and the manipulation by Manson. But my view is different. At 19 I knew the difference between right and wrong. And while I will never say I didn’t do things that were wrong, I always recognized that there were consequences if I got caught. I never believed it would somehow be okay to break the law and certainly not to kill innocent people.

I don’t feel strongly about this and her release is not bothersome to me.

I am good with her release at this point in time.
How she lives or what she does at this point is her battle and is of no concern of mine. I am not empathetic over this being a struggle for her. Choices have consequences.

I’m ok with her release. I hope she can adjust. I don’t know what type of prison she has been in the last ten or 20 years. I would assume she wasn’t still in some sort of high security prison?

She was a young adult, and should have known better, she was manipulated, and unfortunately that means her prison experience probably easily manipulate her psyche too, and usually not for the better in the US prison system. I wonder what she has done during her prison time. If she has continued her education, stayed in touch with the outside world in any way. I have no idea what her experience has been like.

I do believe she deserves a second chance after all of this time if she wants it. I hope she has help out here in the real world.

Why not. She most likely doesn’t have any retirement resources, so her punishment will go on.

@LifeQuestioner….no way.

I feel sorry for her.

Ugh. I hadn’t heard about this until now.
I am aghast.
As a Christian, I believe in forgiveness. As a member of society (barely), this scares the fuck out of me.
She was manipulated by Manson, and surely is no longer a threat. I know I should be softer on this.

@Dutchess_III I don’t know for certain, that’s why I stayed at that it might have just been a rumor, but I definitely saw a story posted about it. I don’t know if I could find it again to send you the link, sorry.

@LifeQuestioner I’m wondering what qualifications people might think she has to be a politician. I mean, she hasn’t done anything (positive or negative), that anybody could base a decision on.

@LifeQuestioner If you read it, it’s likely some offshoot group who wants to stir things up or it’s from a site no intelligent adult would believe. That’s all it sounds like – bullshit. I don’t believe it for a minute.

@jca2 in going back and looking for the story, I think it was satire. They were saying that since she just got out of prison, the Republicans might want her to run for political office. Sorry I wasn’t more clear about that in the beginning but I didn’t pick up on that vibe yesterday.

My immediate reaction is to feel sorry for all the time she spent in prison. Did she ever express sorrow for what she did? Is there any indication of a psychological disturbance? Does she have any family or support group? How is she expected to be able to provide for herself?

@LostInParadise I wrote above that I read the NY Times yesterday and she will be living in transitional housing, which means like a halfway house, which provides food and basics like housing, resources for clothes, etc.

She absolutely expressed remorse. She was found suitable for parole after a July 2020 hearing, but her release was blocked by Newsom, who maintained she was still a threat to society.

She earned a bachelor’s and a master’s degree in counseling while in prison and worked as a tutor for other incarcerated people.

A former high school cheerleader and homecoming princess, she saw her life spiral out of control at 14 following her parents’ divorce. She turned to drugs and became pregnant but said her mother forced her to abort the fetus and bury it in the family’s backyard.

Those events may not seem like a big deal by today’s standards, but remember, it was approx 1964 when she was 14. I wish her well.

I have a LOT of mixed emotions on this one. On one side I do believe in 2nd chances. On the other, she took a life & should be punished for the rest of her natural life. She’s close to my age & I did a LOT of things at 19 that I would NOT even consider doing now!!! Manson was a VERY manipulative man & who knows what drugs he had her on while controlling her mind. At 19, I don’t know that I would have been strong enough to out think him. I like to think that I would NOT have been willing to kill someone for him…then again I wasn’t there to have to make that decision!!!

Now that Manson is dead & she’s NO longer under his control, I like to think that she’s NO longer a danger to society. I can’t imagine her jumping out of jail just to go out & kill someone else for NO reason whatsoever. After being in jail for over 50 years, I would think it would be like jumping into hell to re enter the current society!!! At this point, I see it as God’s place to determine her punishment for eternity!!!