LOS ANGELES — Patricia Krenwinkel, a former member of the notorious Manson family that carried out a series of grisly killings across Los Angeles, was granted parole, but a final decision on her freedom now rests with Gov. Gavin Newsom.

In a statement to the Los Angeles Times, her attorney said that after five decades behind bars, it was time for Krenwinkel to be released on parole.

"Pat has fully accepted responsibility for everything she did, everything she contributed to, every twisted philosophy she embraced and endorsed and, most importantly, every life she destroyed by her actions," said Keith Wattley, founder and executive director of UnCommon Law, which represents inmates in parole hearings. "Patricia Krenwinkel should be paroled because California professes to believe in redemption and rehabilitation."

Krenwinkel was approved for parole Friday, the second time the state's parole board reached that decision during her 54 years in state prison. In May 2022, Krenwinkel was approved for parole, but that decision was reversed by Newsom.

The governor's office did not immediately respond to questions about whether he would reverse the latest decision to grant Krenwinkel parole.

The parole decision will become final after 120 days, as long as it is cleared by the parole board's legal office, and then it is sent to Newsom, who has 30 days to decide then whether to reverse the parole board's decision.

During her 54 years in state prison, Krenwinkel has taken part in therapy and group counseling to address what Wattley described as her role as both a perpetrator and survivor of violence. She has also faced nine consecutive psychological evaluations where she has been deemed to no longer pose a public safety risk, Wattley said in the statement.

This was Krenwinkel's 16th appearance before the parole board.

Krenwinkel was convicted in 1971, along with other members of the Manson family, for the killings of actress Sharon Tate and six others during a deadly two-day killing spree in Los Angeles. She had been originally sentenced to death, but that was commuted to life in prison with the possibility of parole after the death penalty was ruled unconstitutional in 1972.

Krenwinkel was among the Manson followers who broke into the Benedict Canyon home of Sharon Tate and her husband, Roman Polanski. Tate and four others were stabbed and shot during the attacks.

The high-profile trial of the Manson family made Manson and several of his followers some of the most infamous criminals of the 20th century, not just because of the nature of the grisly crimes, but some of the antics and dramatic moments of the closely watched trial.

During her trial, Krenwinkel testified that she chased Abigail Folger, heiress to the coffee company, before stabbing her more than two dozen times. She also testified that she used blood to write on the wall of the home "Death to pigs."

Along with co-defendants Susan Atkins and Leslie Van Houten, Krenwinkel at one point showed up to court with an X carved on her foreheard, as Manson had also done.

Debra Tate, Sharon Tate's sister, has been an outspoken advocate for keeping Krenwinkel, and other former followers of Manson, behind bars.

"Society cannot allow this serial killer who committed such horrible, gruesome, random killings back out," she wrote in the online petition, which has garnered more than 116,000 signatures since it was created in 2016.

In an online petition, she urged supporters to send letters to Newsom to oppose Krenwinkel's release. She did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Despite the gruesomeness and notorious nature of the crimes, Krenwinkel's attorney argued she should be considered for parole.

"No matter how serious and disturbing the facts of a crime, if a person gets a parole-eligible sentence, our laws require that they be released once they are no longer dangerous," he said in the statement.

Former members of the so-called Manson family, now elderly state prison inmates, have faced several parole hearings that have resulted in outright denials.

Other former Manson followers, including Charles Denton "Tex" Watson, 79, Robert Kenneth Beausoleil, 77, and Bruce Davis, 82, remain in custody in California state prisons.

In 2023, however, Van Houten was granted parole and released, after holding what many described as an exemplary record for decades behind bars. Newsom had denied a previous decision granting parole to Van Houten but was overruled by an appellate court ruling.

When Newsom reversed the parole board's decision granting parole to Krenwinkel in 2022, he stated that the 77-year-old convict had "not developed sufficient insight into the causative factors of her crime and her triggers for antisocial thinking and conduct in the context of maladaptive relationships."

In a statement issued at the time, Newsom pointed out that Krenwinkel was young at the time of the killings, 21, and she had a record of good behavior in prison, but ultimately decided it was not enough to grant her a release.

During a 2016 hearing, Krenwinkel's attorney also noted she had been abused by Manson, or someone else, at the time.

She is currently in custody at the California Institution for Women.

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