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CHINO, Calif. (AP) — A California panel recommended parole Thursday for former Charles Manson follower Leslie Van Houten more than four decades after she went to prison for the notorious killings of a wealthy grocer and his wife.

The decision will now undergo administrative review by the Board of Parole Hearings. If upheld it goes to Gov. Jerry Brown, who has the final word on whether the now-66-year-old Van Houten is released from the California Institution for Women in Chino.

Brown previously blocked the parole of former Manson follower Bruce Davis, citing the gravity of his offenses and his refusal to fully accept responsibility for his role in the murders of a stunt man and a musician.

Van Houten was "numb" after the parole board decision was made at the California Institution for Women, said her attorney Rich Pfeiffer

Van Houten was the youngest Manson follower to take part in one of the nation's most notorious killings after she descended into a life of drugs and joined Manson's cult in the 1960s.

Since then, she has completed college degrees and been commended for her behavior as a model prisoner.

Earlier Thursday, she described in graphic detail how she helped secure a pillow over the head of Rosemary La Bianca with a lamp cord and hold her down while someone else stabbed the woman in her home in 1969.

Van Houten recounted the killing during her 21st parole hearing at the California Institution for Women, saying she had looked off into the distance until another Manson follower told her to do something and she joined in the stabbing.

"I don't let myself off the hook. I don't find parts in any of this that makes me feel the slightest bit good about myself," she told the parole board panel.

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http://www.msn.com/en-us/news/crime/boar...ocid=spartandhp

At this stage I don't really see anything wrong with granting her parole. Yes, the crimes she participated in were horrid, but she was only 19, mesmerized by Charlie, and caught up in a milieu of drugs and insanity. She's now 66, isn't in the best of health, and doesn't represent a threat to anyone.

In California, when I was working in NY as an ADA, the average time somebody did for murder was SEVEN years. One clown turned down parole because it would have barred him from going to Stanford, where he'd killed his thesis supervisor with a sledge hammer. He preferred no supervision after he maxed out IN THREE MONTHS.

It was almost not THAT you killed, but WHO you killed [see Sirhan Sirhan]. Van Houten, Krenwinkle and Atkins came to recognize, and feel guilt for their crimes. They completed GED and in the case of Van Houten and Krenwinkle, college degrees. They worked with at risk kids, did Scared Straight programs, learned job skills, etc. And Still they couldn't get paroled. They even refused to release Atkins to hospice when she was terminally ill with a brain tumor.

This was LONG overdue. Hopefully, Van Houten passes the Board and Gov. Moonbeam. And, hopefully, Krenwinkle will get paroled as well.