CORONA, Calif. (AP) Thirty five years after the notorious
Tate-LaBianca murders, Leslie Van Houten, the youngest of the women
convicted with Charles Manson, was denied parole for a 15th time
Wednesday, a spokesman for the Board of Prison Terms said.
``She was denied for an additional two years and the board
ordered a new psychological evaluation for the next hearing,'' said
spokesman Bill Sessa.
Two nephews and a niece of the slain Rosemary and Leno LaBianca
presented victim impact statements to the board, he said, and Van
Houten, now 54 also spoke.
``The board looks at a wide range of criteria including the fact
that there were multiple crimes,'' said Sessa. ``There was a rather
exhaustive discussion.''
He said the hearing stretched over about four hours at the
California Institution for Women.
None of those convicted in the August 1969 slayings in Los
Angeles has been released. Last month, the board denied parole for
Patricia Krenwinkel, who was convicted along with Manson, Van
Houten and Susan Atkins.
The board has repeatedly cited the callousness, viciousness and
calculation of the seven murders in denying parole for members of
the so-called Manson Family.
Actress Sharon Tate and four others were killed at her Benedict
Canyon estate on Aug. 9, 1969, and the following night, Leno and
Rosemary LaBianca were stabbed to death at their Los Feliz home.
Both crime scenes were marked by bloody scrawlings.
Van Houten, then 19, and her co-defendants were sentenced to
death, but the sentences were commuted to life when the U.S.
Supreme Court outlawed the death penalty in 1972. It has since been
reinstated.
(Copyright 2004 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)