Gavin Newsom this week again denied parole for Patricia Krenwinkel, who has spent more than half a century in prison for her role in the 1969 Tate-LaBianca killings orchestrated by Charles Manson and perpetrated by his followers.
Nearly five months after California’s parole board found the 77-year-old suitable for release, the governor on Monday reversed the decisionand said Krenwinkel “currently poses an unreasonable danger to society if released from prison at this time’”.
It was the second time Newsom has blocked her parole, and the decision was met with sharp criticism from Krenwinkel’s longtime attorney who argued the governor chose “politics over people” and failed to take into account the abuse she suffered from Manson.
“Newsom’s reversal of Pat’s grant has nothing to do with the record of how much she’s changed or the risk she presents,” said Keith Wattley, Krenwinkel’s attorney and the founder and executive director of the nonprofit UnCommon Law. “It is 100% political, directly contrary to the evidence and the controlling law.”
Krenwinkel was 21 when the Manson cult committed the murders of actor Sharon Tate and four others, including heiress Abigail Folger and hairstylist Jay Sebring, and the following night killed Leno LaBianca, a grocer, and his wife, Rosemary. In 1971, she and other Manson followers were convicted of seven counts of first-degree murder for their roles in the attack.
In her decades behind bars – Krenwinkel is California’s longest serving female prisoner – she has turned her life around, friends and her legal team told the Guardian earlier this year. Krenwinkel has earned college degrees and her behavior record is spotless, her attorney said, which was one of the reasons the parole board recommended her for release.
Krenwinkel has expressed remorse for her role in the crimes. In 2022 she said: “I want to say is how terribly sorry I am for all the pain and suffering that I created when I took the lives that I did … I try every day to live amends … [and] focus on being a better person.”
A 2017 investigation by the parole board found she experienced physical, emotional and sexual violence by Charles Manson, her lawyer said in a statement, adding that she has found her “own identity, independence, and moral compass”.
Newsom has previously blocked parole for other former Manson followers. Leslie Van Houten was released from California prison in 2023 after 53 years when a state appeals court reversed the governor’s decision to block her parole.
