Opinion: Readers have strong -- and evolving -- feelings on paroling Leslie Van Houten (via latimesopinion )
The Manson “family” killings of 1969 and subsequent trials were before my time, but their terrifying hold on the collective imagination in Southern California was obvious to me as a kid growing up in Glendale in the 1980s and 90s. We weren’t familiar with the awful details, thankfully, but I recall knowing enough to sometimes call whichever kid was “it” on the playground Charles Manson. Adults didn’t like that.
She was out on bail for seven months in 1977-78 during her retrial, the only active participant in the Tate-LaBianca murders allowed outside prison for any reason.She wasn’t a threat to the public 45 years ago, but as a society we don’t usually let convicted murderers out after less than a decade behind bars. But now she is elderly and has been incarcerated for the better part of six decades, it is time to let her go.
The fact that this state doesn’t carry out death sentences should be considered by the parole board before ever allowing such criminals to see the light of day, however briefly, before their final judgment from which there will be no parole.I think we forget that in many ways, who we were at 19 is very very different than who we are at Van Houten’s age of 73 .
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