California Parole Board Grants Patricia Krenwinkel Release

California's board of parole hearings granted release to Patricia Krenwinkel, 78, a former follower of Charles Manson, on Tuesday, according to the Guardian. It is the third time the board has approved her release since she began serving her sentence for the 1969 Tate-LaBianca murders, the Guardian reported.

Krenwinkel's attorneys are now asking Governor Gavin Newsom, a Democrat, to let the decision stand. Newsom reversed the board's two prior parole grants for Krenwinkel, denying her release each time, the Guardian reported.

What did the parole board find?

The board concluded that Krenwinkel, now in her late seventies, would not pose a danger to public safety if released, according to the Guardian. The outlet reported that the board has repeatedly cited her record of rehabilitation over 57 years in custody in reaching that conclusion. Krenwinkel has been imprisoned longer than any other woman in California, the Guardian reported.

What was Krenwinkel convicted of?

Krenwinkel was convicted in 1971 for her role in a two-night killing spree in Los Angeles that left seven people dead, according to the Guardian. The victims included actor Sharon Tate, who was eight months pregnant at the time, and four of her friends, along with grocery owner Leno LaBianca and his wife, Rosemary, the Guardian reported. Krenwinkel was 21 years old at the time of the killings, according to the outlet.

Her attorneys have said she was 19 when she came under Manson's influence and was, in their characterization, exploited and psychologically abused by him, the Guardian reported. Krenwinkel's longtime lawyer, Keith Wattley, said in a statement reported by the Guardian: "Reaching this moment has taken decades of hard, deliberate work to confront who she was, what she did, and the devastating harm she caused. She fully accepts responsibility for her actions, everything she contributed to, and every life she destroyed in 1969. Pat does not excuse or minimize that harm."

What evidence did the board cite on rehabilitation?

The Guardian reported that Krenwinkel has maintained a clean disciplinary record during her time in custody and that nine consecutive psychological evaluations conducted over the past 40 years have found her to be a low risk. The outlet did not specify the methodology or scoring instruments used in those evaluations, and no additional detail on the evaluators or their institutional affiliation was reported.

Why has the governor reversed her parole before?

Newsom overturned the board's two previous parole grants for Krenwinkel, according to the Guardian, though the specific reasoning he gave in those earlier reversals was not detailed in the available reporting. Under California's parole system, the governor retains authority to review and reverse board decisions in murder cases, and Krenwinkel's case has now tested that authority three times.

What happens next?

The Guardian reported that Krenwinkel's attorneys are urging Newsom to allow the latest grant to stand rather than issue a third reversal. The governor's office had not issued a public response at the time of the Guardian's report. No timeline for a decision was specified in the available source material, and it remains uncertain whether Newsom will reach a different conclusion than he did after the two earlier grants.

The case continues to draw attention in part because of the enduring notoriety of the Tate-LaBianca killings, which remain among the most widely covered crimes in modern American history. Krenwinkel's advancing age and decades-long disciplinary and psychological record form the core of the argument her attorneys are making to the governor, according to the Guardian's reporting, while the ultimate outcome rests with Newsom's review.

How notorious are the Tate-LaBianca murders?

The Guardian described the 1969 killings as gruesome and said they became one of the most notorious crime stories in the United States. The two-night spree carried out under Manson's direction has remained a fixture of American true-crime coverage for more than half a century, the outlet reported, a factor that has kept Krenwinkel's parole proceedings under sustained public and media scrutiny each time the board has acted on her case.

The Guardian's account of Krenwinkel's attorneys described her as someone who "fell under Charles Manson's control" at 19, language the outlet used to frame the defense's broader argument that Manson exploited and psychologically abused younger followers, including Krenwinkel, in the lead-up to the killings. The outlet did not report a response from prosecutors or victims' representatives to that characterization.