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CNN Live Today

Van Houten Up for Parole for 14th Time

Aired June 28, 2002 - 13:12   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
FREDRICKA WHITFIELD, CNN ANCHOR: Right now, it's believed Leslie Van Houten is pleading her case before California's parole board. She was part of the Manson family that went on a notorious murder spree more than 30 years ago. What are her chances of getting out now?

CNN's Charles Feldman is outside the prison in Corono, he joins us now from there -- hi there, Charles.

CHARLES FELDMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hi there, Fredricka. You know, for almost 33 years, Leslie Van Houten has been behind these fences at this prison here in California. It's a place where -- that is swarming with flies, where the air is pungent with the nauseating smell of cow dung. This is where she has been for most of her adult life, because of the horrendous crime she committed when she was a member of Charles Manson's "family." And I use the word "family" with quotation marks around it.

At the time, 1969, 19 years old, it was the day after Charles Manson and his gang brutally killed actress Sharon Tate.

They went to another home, the home of the LaBiancas, Leno, and Rosemary, his wife. In one bedroom, Leno LaBianca was brutally murdered. In another, his wife was being held down, a pillow over her head, and Leslie Van Houten was there helping to hold it. One other member of the Manson family then brutally stabbed Mrs. LaBianca with a bayonet, handed a knife to Leslie Van Houten, who then stabbed her some 16 times in the back. She was convicted of murder. She has been here ever since.

For 13 times, the parole board has turned down her request for a parole. Last month, a judge said that she needed to be provided a road map, because under California law, she is entitled to that in order to get out, because it is alleged that she is now rehabilitated. She has helped other prisoners. She is a model prisoner. She has even made quilts for the homeless. Needless to say, there are others who think that she does not deserve to leave this prison, not now, not ever.

This parole board today will make a decision. Whatever decision it makes, it will then go to the governor of the state of California, and under California law, it is the governor who will then decide whether or not she can ever be a free woman. That is unless a judge here, which would be a precedent for this state, decides to overrule whatever decision Governor Gray Davis decides to make -- Fredricka. WHITFIELD: All right. Charles Feldman, thank you very much.

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