The Second District Court of Appeal in May reversed Newsom’s rejection of her parole in a 2-1 ruling, writing that there was “no evidence to support the Governor’s conclusions” about Van Houten’s fitness for release. She filed an appeal with a trial court, which rejected it, and then turned to the appellate courts. Van Houten 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 bachelors and a masters degree in counseling while in prison and worked as a tutor for other incarcerated people. Van Houten, who will likely be on parole for about three years, hopes to get a job as soon as possible, Tetreault said. “It’s a very different world than when she went in.” She has to learn to buy things without cash,” Tetreault said. “She has to learn to use to use the internet. Van Houten is expected to spend about a year at a halfway house, adjusting to a world changed immeasurably by technology in the past half-century. Van Houten’s Rehabilitation and Future Plans

Van Houten, who was 19 at the time, did not participate in the Tate killings. The slayings happened the day after Manson followers killed actress Sharon Tate and four others. Then, ordered by Manson follower Charles “Tex” Watson to “do something,” Van Houten said, she picked up a knife and stabbed the woman more than a dozen times. Van Houten later described holding Rosemary LaBianca down with a pillowcase over her head as others stabbed her. The LaBiancas were killed in their home, and their blood was smeared on the walls afterward. Voters and state lawmakers eventually reinstated the death penalty, but it did not apply retroactively. Her sentence was later commuted to life in prison when the California Supreme Court overturned the state’s death penalty law in 1972. Van Houten was originally sentenced to death for helping Manson’s followers carry out the August 1969 killings of Leno LaBianca, a grocer in Los Angeles, and his wife, Rosemary. Van Houten’s Role in the LaBianca Killings

1969 army daily dozen exercise routine