Manson follower Van Houten gets another shot at release

[AlphaOmega]

So what do we think? Has she "served her time"? Should she be released? Personally I say no way, no how. I know she was young. I know she is rehabilitated. But the Manson crimes are among the worst in our country's history. What she did to Mrs. LaBianca IMO prohibited her from ever having the luxury of a day of freedom.


LOS ANGELES — Charles Manson follower Leslie Van Houten is getting another chance at getting out of prison following a years-long saga that has seen a board recommend her parole three separate times.

Van Houten's case is being heard before California's 2nd District Court of Appeal, which will consider whether to overturn a Los Angeles County Superior Court judge's ruling denying parole for Van Houten last year.

Van Houten's attorney, Rich Pfeiffer, will argue that his 69-year-old client deserves to be released because she's a changed woman, takes responsibility for her actions and has been a model inmate for more than four decades. Prosecutors will continue to vigorously fight Van Houten's release because of the seriousness of the crimes.


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Manson follower Van Houten gets another shot at release

This piece of human bile should be used for medical expiraments until she dies.

 

[AlphaOmega]

These are the people Bernie wants to vote.

 

[Incredulous]

The sentence she received for her crime is life in prison. She needs to stay there.

I just read that her sentence did include the possibility of parole. However, it should be noted that Governor Jerry Brown has blocked her last two requests and in 2016 stated "Both her role in these extraordinarily brutal crimes and her inability to explain her willing participation in such horrific violence cannot be overlooked and lead me to believe she remains an unacceptable risk to society if released." Additionally, she has not reached out to apologize to the families of her victims. So there's that.

She was a young, desperate, highly impressionable woman brutally pimped and brainwashed by sociopath Manson.

She deserves freedom.

I see where you're coming from. However, there is still a monster in her that was capable of stabbing another human multiple times for no reason.

 

[3leftsdoo]

The horrific nature of her crimes say otherwise. She deserves to rot on jail

The things people - particularly damaged young people - do when under the control of a monster...

I hope she sees some freedom.

 

[3leftsdoo]

If you let her out, I think her murder would be inevitable.

I don't think so, and that's not a basis for denying parole at any rate.

 

[3leftsdoo]

This piece of human bile should be used for medical expiraments until she dies.

But that damn Constitution.

 

[3leftsdoo]

These are the people Bernie wants to vote.

Oh definitely.

:roll:

 

[3leftsdoo]

I just read that her sentence did include the possibility of parole. However, it should be noted that Governor Jerry Brown has blocked her last two requests and in 2016 stated "Both her role in these extraordinarily brutal crimes and her inability to explain her willing participation in such horrific violence cannot be overlooked and lead me to believe she remains an unacceptable risk to society if released." Additionally, she has not reached out to apologize to the families of her victims. So there's that.

I see where you're coming from. However, there is still a monster in her that was capable of stabbing another human multiple times for no reason.

That monster is in everyone, and she was brutalized and brainwashed by a deranged sociopath.

 

[noonereal]

So what do we think? Has she "served her time"? Should she be released? Personally I say no way, no how. I know she was young. I know she is rehabilitated. But the Manson crimes are among the worst in our country's history. What she did to Mrs. LaBianca IMO prohibited her from ever having the luxury of a day of freedom.

I'd be inclined to disagree but I respect all differing opinions.

 

[noonereal]

That monster is in everyone, and she was brutalized and brainwashed by a deranged sociopath.

But then do we forgive the tRumpets?

 

[GDViking]

That monster is in everyone, and she was brutalized and brainwashed by a deranged sociopath.

Just the same as most of the cultists on DP and I intend on forgiving them for their complete stupidity in forty years or so...

 

[Thingfish]

Lock her up! If ya kill in cold blood, ya get life in prison.

 

[3leftsdoo]

But then do we forgive the tRumpets?

Or the Hillbots? :mrgreen:

 

[Incredulous]

That monster is in everyone, and she was brutalized and brainwashed by a deranged sociopath.

I'm going to agree to disagree. Typically, unless the perp is a legit psycho, stabbing someone over a dozen times is usually a crime of passion - or at least emotionally charged.

 

[danarhea]

You don't understand what justice means? Justice is that which justifies the existence of society. It's what makes society worth being a part of. Punishment does not figure into that, at least not intellectually.

Justice is public security (incarceration) and redemption (rehabilitation). It's not revenge. State inflicted revenge does not make society worth being a part of. No one joins for punishment.

Tell that to the families of those she tortured and murdered.

 

[ecofarm]

Tell that to the families of those she tortured and murdered.

So we're going emotion based. Very intellectual of you.

 

[danarhea]

So we're going emotion based. Very intellectual of you.

Call it whatever you want, but the families of those she murdered have rights too, which were violated when the Manson family committed the gruesome murders. Too bad you don't give a damn about those.

 

[ecofarm]

Call it whatever you want, but the families of those she murdered have rights too, which were violated when the Manson family committed the gruesome murders. Too bad you don't give a damn about those.

Justice is security and opportunity for redemption. It's not vengeance or emotion. If she's not a threat, her attempt at redemption is worth something to society. We might as well get whatever good we can out of her. Why waste it. We're gonna waste redemption on revenge?

 

[yankintx]

Punishment has nothing to do with the justice system. We incarcerate people for public security. We provide opportunity for redemption. If someone is not a threat to the public and might seek redemption, what's the gain for us as society in keeping them incarcerated? Revenge? That's not justice.

I agree, if the system deems she is no longer a threat, and she has completed almost 50 years of punishment and shown remource it is time to grant her conditional parlole. As the crime was so highly publicized public disgust and the notoriety are not reasons to deny parole.

 

[tosca1]

If the law says she's qualified for parole - she should have the same chances like everyone has.

Anyway, yes that crime was horrific.....but it's not the worst crime in US history! Is it?

The senseless butchery of what seemed like random victims, perpetrated by what seemed like
people crazed by drugs. It was horrific, no doubt about that. It was a well-publicized crime, too.

 

[3leftsdoo]

I'm going to agree to disagree. Typically, unless the perp is a legit psycho, stabbing someone over a dozen times is usually a crime of passion - or at least emotionally charged.

They were instructed by Manson to do this; they were brainwashed, not inflamed by passion.

 

[3leftsdoo]

Call it whatever you want, but the families of those she murdered have rights too, which were violated when the Manson family committed the gruesome murders. Too bad you don't give a damn about those.

So leaving her in prison will raise them from the dead?

 

[Mason66]

I have mixed feelings about this as well...

On one hand if I had my wish we would have the death penalty nationwide, an we wouldn't be discussing this.

However we do not, and as such our system is based on rehabilitation. She was sentenced to whatever it was and she is eligible for parole. The parole boards appear to believe she is rehabilitated, so by law she has served her sentance.

Also in this case there are extenuating circumstances, she was a member of a cult and Manson did get his members to do terrible things, much the same as Jones.

I think in this particular case I will be okay either way, just be happy that the justice system worked and shut the Manson machine down...

Van Houten was originally sentenced to death, so there is that.

 

[Mason66]

She's already 69, and I think she'd shown remorse.
Unless she's mentally unstable, what danger does she pose to the public?

She's served time. A long time. Her whole life was spent in prison.
We should put that past to rest.

Ok, now saying that, how is she going to survive on the outside never having done it in the past? Where is she going to live and work?

 

[Mason66]

Yep, and her sentence was life in prison - which ends upon her death. Her victims will never be secure and were permanently and very violently removed from society without any justice.

Her sentence was death until California changed it.