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CNN Live Today

Leslie Van Houten Comes Up for Parole

Aired June 28, 2002 - 12:13   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.
WHITFIELD: CNN's Charles Feldman is waiting for that parole hearing to start. Charles, she's been a model prisoner, yet, she's 0 for 13 so far, in parole hearings, as we heard from Frank.

CHARLES FELDMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, Fredricka, and, you know, she has been inside this prison, inside this compound for almost 33 years of her adult life, and it's important for viewers to understand why.

It was an horrendous crime. It was the year that man landed on the moon. It was back in 1969, as you heard Frank Buckley tell you, and it wasn't just a conventional murder. It was an horrendous one involving Charles Manson and his cult, if you will. And it was the day after Manson killed actress Sharon Tate, and she was, at the time, married to famed director Roman Polanski.

The next night, Leslie Van Houten went with Manson and some others to a home that they picked at random. It was the home of the LaBiancas, Leno and Rosemary. Well, while one family member, one Manson family member brutally killed Mr. LaBianca in one room, Leslie Van Houten and some other Manson members held down his wife, Rosemary, in another room with a pillow over hear face. At that point, one other member of the family, the Manson family took a bayonet, stabbed her, then, handed a knife to Leslie Van Houten, who, at the time, was only 19, and she, then, stabbed Mrs. LaBianca some 16 times in the back. Well, over the past 33 years, 13 times, she's come before a parole board.

Thirteen times, the parole board denied her the right to leave this prison compound. When the judge decided last month that there needs to be some road map, some way of granting her parole because her sentence does allow for it, that's the reason why we're back here today. And, if she is granted parole, it is not the end of the story, Fredricka, not by a long shot, because there is a 120-day period for a legal review, and then, ultimately, it will go to the governor of the state of California and the governor will have a final say -- Fredricka.

WHITFIELD: All right. Thanks very much. Charles Feldman. Appreciate it.

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