"In a statement, Sirhan’s attorney Angela Berry expressed concern that the board had been swayed by Newsom..."

"... who overruled the previous recommendation in 2022 and has argued that Sirhan has not been rehabilitated. She also argued against the idea that her client lacked 'sufficient insight' into his actions, citing psychiatric evaluations dating back to 1975 and the 2021 parole hearing. In an op-ed published in the Los Angeles Times last year, Newsom said Sirhan had 'not developed the accountability and insight required to support his safe release into his community.'"

From "Sirhan Sirhan, Robert F. Kennedy’s assassin, denied parole again" (WaPo).

"Mr. Ortiz was classified as a sex offender, and a New York law barred him from living within 1,000 feet of a school while on parole."

"Prison officials would not let him go until he identified a suitable address. They did almost nothing to help him.... Mr. Ortiz served an extra 25 months because he could not find a place to live. He wanted to return to New York City, where his mother and daughter lived. But most of the city was off limits because almost all residential areas are within 1,000 feet of a school.... [There is] 'a cruel Catch-22' for people classified as sex offenders, Allison Frankel wrote in 2019 in The Yale Law Journal Forum, because corrections officials will 'not release them from prison until they obtained approved housing, but their poverty, disabilities and sex-offender registration status made finding housing impossible.'"

From "Their Time Served, Sex Offenders Are Kept in Prison in ‘Cruel Catch-22’/New York prisons will not release people convicted of some sex offenses until they find housing far from schools. But that is hard to do, especially from behind bars" by Adam Liptak (NYT).

Parole, at long last, for a Manson family member?

Leslie Van Houten, 68, has convinced a 2-member panel in Chino, California that, after 40 years, she has "radically changed her life and is no longer a threat to society" (NPR).

It was the 21st time that Van Houten has appeared before a parole board and the second time that commissioners found her suitable for release. The ruling must still be approved by the state parole board and Gov. Jerry Brown, who reversed another panel's ruling last year.

So the answer to the question in the post title is: NO.

"I feel absolutely horrible about it, and I have spent most of my life trying to find ways to live with it," Van Houten told the panel....

On the night of the attack nearly five decades ago, she said she held Rosemary LaBianca down with a pillowcase over her head as others stabbed her dozens of times. Then, ordered by Manson disciple Charles "Tex" Watson to "do something," she picked up a butcher knife and stabbed the woman more than a dozen times.

New York's longest-serving inmate — 50 years in prison on a 20-to-life term — denied parole for the 18th time.

It's the man who killed Kitty Genovese, the symbol of the callousness of bystanders.

Winston Moseley said: "I know that I did some terrible things, and I've tried very hard to atone for those things in prison... I think almost 50 years of paying for those crimes is enough." Moseley is 80.

The parole board said: "You still minimize the gravity of your behavior and did not exhibit much insight."

The murder was in 1964. Here's an op-ed by Winston Moseley — dateline Attica, NY — published in 1977, "Today I'm a Man Who Wants to Be an Asset":



"I've been imprisoned many years now..." Many years, but now he's been there 5 times as long.

My perpetual torment will not resurrect her.... Prison as it presently stands is an inherently evil place that insidiously and systematically works to destroy imprisoned persons.... The '71 Attica rebellion profoundly affected me... Now I have earned a B.A. degree in sociology.... I've made reasonable suggestions to state officials about prison reform.... I tried and succeeded in doing something good.... The man who killed Kitty Genovese is no more.... Another vastly different individual has emerged, a Winston Moseley intent and determined to do constructive, not destructive things....

UPDATE: Moseley died in prison on March 28, 2016.

"The parole board does not hold my life in its hands. And I don't want to be too critical, but men tend to think they do."

"Charlie never thought he did. He never expressed all this desire for power, this desire for acceptance."

"Charlie" = Charles Manson. The statement is from Squeaky Fromme — Lynette Fromme — who will be released on parole.