Parole decision is delayed for former Charles Manson follower and California's longest-serving female inmate who helped butcher pregnant actress Sharon Tate and six others

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A two-member parole panel has delayed making a decision on whether to release Patricia Krenwinkel, an accomplice of cult killer Charles Manson and the longest-serving female inmate in California.

The decision to delay Thursday by the panel came after the 69-year-old Krenwinkel was previously denied parole 13 times, most recently in 2011.

Krenwinkel helped kill pregnant actress Sharon Tate and six other people at the urging of Manson 47 years ago.

The hearing was held at the California Institution for Women, about 40 miles east of Los Angeles, where Krenwinkel is imprisoned.

She has a clean record behind bars, earned a bachelor's degree and taught illiterate inmates to read.

Gov. Jerry Brown has the power to block the release of inmates if parole is granted. He previously stopped the parole of two other Manson followers.  

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Pleading for her freedom: Charles Manson disciple Patrica Krenwinkel, pictured left in 1970 and right in 2014, appeared before a parole board Thursday, 47 years after the 1969 murders

Two lives cut short: Krenwinkel has been denied parole 13 times since her conviction in the slayings of actress Sharon Tate, who was eight and a half months pregnant 

Combo image shows the five victims slain the night of August 9, 1969 at the Benedict Canyon Estate of Roman Polanski. From left, Voityck Frykowski, Sharon Tate, Stephen Parent, Jay Sebring, and Abigail Folger

The body of actress Sharon Tate is removed from her Benedict Canyon home in August 1969

Krenwinkel acknowledged during her trial that she chased down and stabbed 26-year-old Abigail Ann Folger 28 times at Tate's Benedict Canyon home. 

Tate, the 26-year-old wife of director Roman Polanski, was eight-and-a-half months pregnant with the couple's first child when she was slaughtered along with her three friends by Manson and his 'Family,' among them Krenwinkel. 

Sharon Tate's sister, Debra Tate, said the parole officials told her the hearing was likely to be postponed about six months while they research to see if Krenwinkel meets the criteria for having battered women's syndrome.

Krenwinkel's attorney, Keith Wattley, did not immediately return telephone and email messages.

'She totally minimized her action and blamed everything on other people the whole hearing,' Tate said.

Tate said she didn't buy the concept that Krenwinkel was a victim because she was free to leave at any time and participated in murders two nights in a row.

'We all have to be accountable for our actions. I don't buy any of this stuff. She was there because she wanted to be there. Nobody held a gun to her head,' Tate said.

Cult leader: Krenwinkel was 19 when she met Charles Manson at a party. The photo on the left shows the mass murderer in 1970 and the one of the right was taken in 2014

Stephen Parent was a fifth victim that night - he had driven to the property to see if caretaker William Garreston wanted to buy his AM/FM Clock radio and had stayed on for a beer at the guest house.

He was shot multiple times when he wound down the window at the electric gate as he left.

The following night, Krenwinkel helped kill grocer Leno LaBianca and his wife, Rosemary, in their home in Los Angeles. 

Los Angeles County prosecutors say Krenwinkel carved the word 'war' into Leno LaBianca's stomach, then wrote 'Helter Skelter' in blood on the couple's refrigerator and 'death to pigs' on the wall.

Krenwinkel's attorney, Keith Wattley, successfully petitioned the state to hold the hearing a year early at the California Institution for Women, about 40 miles east of Los Angeles, where Krenwinkel is imprisoned.

'Ms. Krenwinkel is fully aware of the difficulty she faces,' Wattley told The Associated Press in an email. 'But California law officially recognizes a person's capacity to change and to address the factors that contributed to their previous behavior so that they can safely be paroled.'

Krenwinkel contended at her previous parole hearing in 2011 that she is a changed woman. 

No mercy: Sharon Tate's younger sister, Debra Tate (pictured), said that killers such as Krenwinkel cannot be rehabilitated

She has a clean disciplinary record, earned a bachelor's degree behind bars, taught illiterate inmates to read and trained service dogs for disabled people.

Anthony DiMaria, the nephew of victim Thomas Jay Sebring, said a Los Angeles County prosecutor who attended the hearing told him that the parole officials want to research whether Krenwinkel was a victim of intimate partner battery.

'For this investigation to be initiated at this point is mind-boggling,' said DiMaria, who attended the hearing but left before a decision was postponed. 

'I don't understand where we go from a murder, the killing of eight people (including Tate's unborn child) to an intimate partner battery victim. It's absurd....It seems like the world is turned upside down. How do you kill eight people and now you're the victim?'

Jean Guccione, a spokeswoman for the Los Angeles District Attorney's Office, said prosecutors would not comment until the parole panel makes its recommendation after the investigation.

Merry murderesses: In this August 20, 1970, file photo, Charles Manson followers, from left: Susan Atkins, Patricia Krenwinkel and Leslie Van Houten, walk to court 

Debra Tate, said before Thursday's hearing that killers such as Krenwinkel cannot be rehabilitated.

'She was a very prolific killer,' Debra Tate said recently. 'They may behave well in a controlled environment, but we cannot trust that, given the pressures of life, that they will be able to remain straight' outside prison.

Krenwinkel was a 19-year-old secretary when she met Manson at a Manhattan Beach party in 1967 along with fellow followers Lynette Fromme and Mary Brunner. 

She testified at her previous parole hearing that she left everything behind three days later to pursue what she believed was a budding romance with him.

She wept and apologized, saying she became a 'monster' after she met Manson.

'I gave up all that was good and accepted all that was bad and allowed that to be me. 

'I committed myself fully to him. I committed myself to the act of murder,' she said then. 'I was willing to sacrifice others' lives for my own.'

Spared: Krenwinkel (center) was initially sentenced to death, but the California Supreme Court invalidated the death penalty in 1972

This year, Gov. Jerry Brown overturned recommendations to free Manson follower Leslie Van Houten, 67, pictured left laughing as she walks to court in Los Angeles for sentencing on March 29, 1971, and right in March 2015 

Prosecutors say the slayings were an attempt to ignite a race war after which Manson and his followers would rise from the rubble to rule the world.

Krenwinkel was initially sentenced to death in the gas chamber, but the California Supreme Court invalidated the death penalty in 1972. If the parole panel recommends release, Gov. Jerry Brown could still block it.

Earlier this year, the Democratic governor overturned recommendations to free Manson followers Leslie Van Houten, 67, and Bruce Davis, 74.

Krenwinkel became the state's longest-serving female inmate when fellow Manson follower Susan Atkins died of cancer in prison in 2009 after being denied a compassionate release.

Anthony DiMaria, the nephew of victim Thomas Jay Sebring, said Krenwinkel's age and long stint in prison should have no bearing on the parole board's decision.

DiMaria noted that Krenwinkel has lived a long time but denied that opportunity to her victims.

The inmate sounded a similar note when she said at her previous parole board hearing five years ago that she felt ashamed of her actions and haunted every day by guilt and grief, knowing that the 'victims who perished had so much life yet to live,' reported the LA Times.