Overview
- A state parole panel recommended release in May 2025, but Newsom’s decision this week reverses the grant and keeps the 77-year-old incarcerated at the California Institution for Women.
- The governor’s order relied on a recent evaluation that noted some introspection but found ongoing deficits in self‑awareness, including a tendency to externalize blame.
- Newsom acknowledged Krenwinkel’s decades of rehabilitation, clean disciplinary record, college degrees, service work and age-related frailty, yet concluded those factors are outweighed by current risk.
- The action is Newsom’s second reversal of a Krenwinkel parole grant following a similar 2022 decision, and her court challenge to that earlier reversal was rejected and later affirmed on appeal.
- Attorney Keith Wattley criticized the move as political and pointed to youth, elderly and domestic‑violence survivor parole provisions, while the Los Angeles County district attorney’s office supported the governor’s reasoning.