CORONA, Calif. (Court TV) — Maybe 14 will be the charm for Leslie Van Houten.

A former member of the notorious Charles Manson "family," Van Houten will attempt, for the fourteenth time, to gain parole when she goes before California's Board of Prison Terms next Wednesday.

Prisoners can only be denied parole for three years at a time, and courtroom observers believe that the board's decision to schedule this latest hearing only a year after Van Houten's last appearance is a good sign. If the board reverses course and opts to grant Van Houten, 49, parole, she will become the first Manson family member to win release. However, this is not the first time there has been a one-year gap between parole hearings for Van Houten; she had parole hearings in 1985 and 1986.

Van Houten was convicted for her role in the Manson family's 1969 murders of Leno and Rosemary LaBianca and of conspiracy to commit murder in actress Sharon Tate's slaying. Devoted to Charles Manson's vision, the Manson family planned to blame the murders on African-Americans and start a race war. Originally sentenced to the death penalty, Van Houten's sentence was commuted to three concurrent life terms when the death penalty was abolished in California in 1972. (It has since been reinstated.)

In 1977, Van Houten became the first Manson family member to receive a new trial when an appeals court ruled she had inadequate representation because her attorney died the night before closing arguments. Although her second trial ended in a hung jury, Van Houten was convicted again in her third trial and again received three concurrent life sentences.

Prison officials say Van Houten is no longer the devoted Manson disciple who once carved an X in her forehead to demonstrate her devotion. Since her incarceration, Van Houten has earned a Master's and Bachelor's degree. Van Houten works as an office clerk in prison, and according to officials, she has been a model prisoner who has never been the subject of a disciplinary report.

When she opted to represent herself before the parole board in 1996 and 1998, she appeared articulate and poised.

"No one at 48 is the same as they were at 19," Van Houten said at last year's hearing. "I will live with that [the murders] forever, and I have learned to live with it the best way I know how."

Despite Van Houten's apparent progress, her past is her greatest obstacle. Prosecutor Stephen Kay, who has attended every parole hearing for every Manson family member, is expected to stress that Van Houten actively participated in three of the nation's most brutal murders and that she still has not sufficiently paid for her crimes.

Last year, Kay suggested that Van Houten was still prone to the influence of people like Charles Manson. Arguing that Van Houten still has not proven that she is not a threat to society, Kay cited a psychiatric report that said that Van Houten has an unusual need to bend to authority.

A yet unnamed relative of one of the Manson family's victims is also expected to oppose Van Houten's parole at this year's hearing. The Board of Prison Terms is withholding the identity of the expected guest out of respect for the person's privacy. During the 1998 parole hearing, Alice LaBianca, Leno LaBianca's ex-wife, submitted a letter opposing Van Houten's attempts to be released. Part of the letter read:

"Leslie Van Houten chose her own path. She chose to follow the instructions of Charles Manson. She chose drug-crazed killers as her family, and she became one of them. But what about my family? When do we get our parole? When does Leno get his parole? Sympathy for these killers, and especially this one, is misplaced..."

The letter represents the first time the LaBianca family had expressed opposition to Van Houten's attempts at parole.

If the Board of Prison Terms grants Van Houten parole, she will not be released from jail immediately. The board will then have to specifically decide how many years Van Houten should spend in prison for murder. Then the board will subtract the time Van Houten has already spent in prison along with good behavior credits and determine her remaining time in prison. It is likely that even if paroled, Van Houten will still have to spend several more years in prison.

— Bryan Robinson