I am glad that Leslie van Houten has repented
and become a nice person. It is good that she
has been a "model prisoner" for 30 years; saves
the taxpayer money. This does not change
the fact that she participated in the murders
of two people chosen at random, who were killed
with the intent of starting a race war. The argument
that she didn't stab Rosemary LaBianca
while Rosemary was still alive does not sway
me, because she helped hold Mrs. LaBianca
down while Tex Watson and Patricia Krenwinkel
stabbed her.
The writer's Sharon Tate argument is likewise
immaterial, because Ms. van Houten wasn't
involved in or charged with the murder of Sharon
Tate and the others.
One quick summary of a van Houten parole hearing read
Van Houten was optimistic about the 2002 hearing
after Superior Court Judge Bob N. Krug
publicly admonished the board for flatly turning
her down each time based solely on the nature
of the crime. Those decisions ignore Van Houten's
accomplishments in prison and turn her life
sentence into life without parole, in violation
of the law, he said.
I can understand the judge's close reading of
the law, but we must remember that the Manson cult
were all originally sentenced to death; their
sentences were commuted to life with the possibility of parole.
This was done when California's death-penalty
law was declared unconstitutional; I do not recall why the
possibility of parole was part of it, but it
might have been simply because "life without" was not a possible
sentence at the time. I'm a lifelong opponent
of the death penalty, but I've got no problem with a sentence
of life without, nor do I have a problem with
turning van Houten or any of the others down for parole
"solely because of the nature of their crimes."
Sharon Tate may have been a very nice and forgiving
woman, but she's dead and we can't say what she
might or might not have wanted for those who
killed her and her unborn child, for whose life she begged to no avail.
Full disclosure: I'm an old fart, and I knew Jay
Sebring; I would be stretching to say he was a friend of mine,
but I got my hair cut at his shop for free, once
even by him, because I did him a favor one day. And these scum
killed him with the intention of starting a race
war which would result in Charlie Manson ruling the world.
Fuck 'em.
Regards,
Pieter
Pieter, first, everyone knows more about these crimes than me, but I
seen to recall that LvH's problem
was being too weak to declare her independence from the psycho after
eating tons of LSD.
Manson was pulling the strings and - the way I remember it - after
the murders, Manson ordered
LvH to get her hands bloody "so she'd be involved," but this was hardly
LvH's crime.
Also, isn't the prison system sending the message that 30 years of perfect behavior means nothing?
I'm sorry about your friend, and I don't mean to make LvH a hero.
I'm just saying she's less of a monster than the people who were controlling
her, but yes,
we're all responsible for the shit we do.