US authorities have released 73-year-old Leslie Van Houten after more than five decades of imprisonment after she was found guilty of complicity with Charles Manson in the murder of two people.
Leslie Van Houten was 19 years old when she joined the “Manson cult” and helped kill Leno LaBianca and his wife Rosemary in 1969.
She was released after California Gov. Gavin Newsom dropped his objection to a state appeals court ruling that recommended her parole against the wishes of family members of those killed.
Van Houten’s lawyer, Nancy Tetro, said she was released early Tuesday morning and moved to a temporary home where she will receive training in basic life skills such as buying and using a mobile phone and a computer.
The California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation confirmed in a statement that Van Houten was “released on probation.”
And in May, a California appeals court ruled that Van Houten should be released from prison after committing the infamous 1969 murders along with five others at Manson’s direction.
At her first trial in 1971, Van Houten described placing a pillow on the head of victim Rosemary LaBianca in her home while other Manson followers brutally stabbed her, and she said she then stabbed the victim over 10 times, cutting her spine. The group smeared blood on the walls of the house.
Van Houten was convicted of murder and sentenced to death, becoming the youngest convicted woman in California history at the age of 21.
She was given a retrial in 1977, during which she was sentenced to life imprisonment.
Manson, convicted of seven counts of first-degree murder and conspiracy to commit murder, died in prison in 2017 at the age of 83.
Source: The Independent