Krenwinkel had been denied parole by Gov. Newsom last year
Special Projects Producer
SACRAMENTO, Calif. —
Patricia Krenwinkel, one of the women convicted of murder in the Tate-LaBianca murders in 1969, has been recommended for parole. This is the third time Krenwinkel has been recommended for release.
After the release of fellow Manson Family member Leslie Van Houten in 2023, Krenwinkel is now the woman with the longest term in California state prison. She has been incarcerated for 57 years.
Krenwinkel, along with other followers of Charles Manson, murdered seven people under orders from Manson. He believed he could start a race war with the murders.
Among those killed was the actress Sharon Tate, who was 8 1/2 months pregnant at the time.
Five people were tried: Tex Watson, Susan Atkins, Leslie Van Houten, Charles Manson, and Krenwinkel. They were all sentenced to death, but a 1972 Supreme Court decision put a moratorium, nationwide, on the death penalty. As such, all sentences were commuted and Krenwinkel, along with Watson, Van Houten, Atkins and Manson had their sentences commuted to life.
Krenwinkel had been granted parole last year, but Gov. Gavin Newsom overturned the decision. He did the same for Leslie Van Houten in 2023, but the full board overturned his decision and Van Houten was released.
Attorneys representing Krenwinkel with UnCommon Law say that she has a spotless disciplinary record and that evaluations over the past 40 years have found her to be a low risk to public safety.
The attorneys point out that she was just 19 when she came under Manson’s influence and was searching for belonging.
They say that Manson “exploited that vulnerability through manipulation, drugs, and psychological abuse. Over the decades since, Pat has worked to understand how she became capable of causing such profound harm and to take responsibility for the consequences of her actions.”
The firm claims that political pressure “is increasingly threatening the integrity of parole decisions in California.”
KCRA 3 reached out to the governor for comment on Krenwinkel’s parole decision.
The governor’s office referred us to the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation, which noted Krenwinkel was preliminarily granted parole at her 17th suitability hearing on Tuesday.
“All grants of parole are proposed decisions and become final only after a thorough and comprehensive review by the Board of Parole Hearings and the Governor,” CDCR said.
In cases where the incarcerated person was convicted of murder, the governor has an additional 30 days after the board’s 120-day period for reviewing the decision to review the parole decision.
The governor could choose to allow the decision to stand or reverse it. Should the governor reverse the parole decision, the person would be scheduled for a new hearing within 18 months of the person’s previous hearing.
KCRA 3 asked Newsom’s office for additional comment on whether he would allow the release.
CDCR said that the Board of Parole’s record in granting parole only to those who are not likely to recidivate is among the best in the country, with more than 96% of people released after a parole hearing not convicted of another crime within three years.
The board’s standard for parole involves “numerous steps and use of validated risk assessment tools, including evaluation by forensic psychologists,” according to CDCR.
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