Manson family killer 'thrilled' she will likely be paroled after escaping death row and spending more than 50 years behind bars

• Charles Manson follower Leslie Van Houten will likely be paroled within weeks, her attorney said.
• Van Houten was convicted of murder in 1971 and has spent over 50 years in prison.

A Charles Manson follower, 73-year-old Leslie Van Houten, will likely be freed within weeks after spending over half a century in prison for murder.

In 1971, Van Houten was convicted of murdering Leno and Rosemary LaBianca when she was 19. Along with other members of Charles Manson's hippie cult, she was initially sentenced to death. Van Houten was the youngest woman ever condemned to death in California.

But it was overturned, and she was sentenced to between seven years and life in prison.

An appeals court ruled in May that Van Houten was eligible for parole after over 50 years behind bars, overturning an earlier decision by California Governor Gavin Newsom.

Newsom has repeatedly blocked efforts for Van Houten to be released but said Friday that he wouldn't fight the ruling in the state Supreme Court.

"The Governor is disappointed by the Court of Appeal's decision to release Ms. Van Houten but will not pursue further action as efforts to further appeal are unlikely to succeed," governor's office spokesperson Erin Mellon said in a statement.

Van Houten and two other Manson followers stabbed the LaBiancas to death in August 1969, one day after cult members had murdered the actress Sharon Tate and four others.

She had been recommended for parole on five occasions since 2016, according to The Guardian, but either former Governor Jerry Brown or Newsom overturned each of those rulings.

"She's thrilled, and she's overwhelmed," Van Houten's attorney Nancy Tetreault said, per NBC. "She's just grateful that people are recognizing that she's not the same person that she was when she committed the murders."

Van Houten will spend around a year learning basic life skills, such as how to shop for groceries, in a halfway house after she's released, Tetreault added.

"She's been in prison for 53 years," the lawyer said. "She just needs to learn how to use an ATM machine, let alone a cell phone, let alone a computer."

The Manson family, which came to symbolize the disintegration of the 1960s counterculture, killed nine people, including the pregnant film actress Sharon Tate.