Does Gov. Schwarzenegger have clemency powers, like Presidents?
Near the end of a president's term, and perhaps at other times too
(e.g. Ford pardons Nixon), presidents can and do issue executive
clemency to select persons. Not all of them are publically known or
infamous figures.

Now, Leslie Van Houten has been turned down for parole 15-odd times. A
California judge named Krug went to bat for her.  The parole board
said no.

Does Cali-FORN-ia Governor Schwarzenegger retain powers of executive clemency?
If so, would or have such powers been used to parole (not pardon)
persons convicted of felony murder in the golden state?

(If Manson finally died, the political risks of clemency might be reduced.)

Hi grthumongous:

In short, "yes", The Govern-ator does have executive clemency powers
and could, if he wished, grant a pardon for Ms. Van Houten.

The ultimate authority for this is found in the Cali-FORN-ia Constitution

CALIFORNIA CONSTITUTION - ARTICLE 5  EXECUTIVE
URL: http://www.leginfo.ca.gov/cgi-bin/waisgate?waisdocid=20897212355+0+0+0&waisaction=retrieve
Quote: "SEC. 8.  (a) Subject to application procedures provided by statute,
the Governor, on conditions the Governor deems proper, may grant a
reprieve, pardon, and commutation, after sentence, except in case of
impeachment.  The Governor shall report to the Legislature each
reprieve, pardon, and commutation granted, stating the pertinent
facts and the reasons for granting it.  The Governor may not grant a
pardon or commutation to a person twice convicted of a felony except
on recommendation of the Supreme Court, 4 judges concurring."

As for parole issues, the article continues:

"(b) No decision of the parole authority of this State with respect
to the granting, denial, revocation, or suspension of parole of a
person sentenced to an indeterminate term upon conviction of murder
shall become effective for a period of 30 days, during which the
Governor may review the decision subject to procedures provided by
statute.  The Governor may only affirm, modify, or reverse the
decision of the parole authority on the basis of the same factors
which the parole authority is required to consider.  The Governor
shall report to the Legislature each parole decision affirmed,
modified, or reversed, stating the pertinent facts and reasons for
the action."

The following document lists how to apply for a Pardon from the Governor:

How to Apply for a Pardon State of California Office of the Governor
URL: http://www.bpt.ca.gov/apply_for_pardon.pdf

One way to expedite a pardon request is to obtain a Certificate of
Rehabilitiation (see pg. 2 of above application). However, since she
is still in prison, Ms. Van Houten does not qualify. This does NOT
mean that she couldn't be given a pardon anyways.

While I haven't been able to find a lot of examples of a California
Governor pardoning a convicted murderer, I was able to dredge up this
one example:

The Life of Margarethe Thomsen
URL: http://www.alecsancestors.com/maggie.htm
Quote: "Banning, California ... Sometime in the 1940's Ben de
Crevecoeur related a story to 29 Palms' first historian, Maude
Russell. A rich relative from New York City sent out a spoiled,
worthless son, William Gates, hoping Hans might be able to keep him
out of trouble, so he would not disgrace his wealthy father.
Unfortunately, they also sent their Gates a liberal allowance each
month, on the receipt of which, he went to Los Angeles, and got drunk,
returning when the money was gone. He finally stole some $1,600
dollars from Hans and went to Los Angeles. He was apprehended and Hans
recovered $400 of the amount. Hans had the young man released and
brought him back home with him. Soon after, the young Gates came up
behind Hans and shot him in the back with a shotgun. As he did not
fall, Gates came closer, shooting him in the head with a six-shooter.
On trial, young Gates was sentenced to be hanged, but his influential
family managed to get the sentence changed to life imprisonment. While
in prison at San Quentin, he contracted tuberculosis. In September,
1880, the Governor pardoned Gates and he died a few months later."

However, I SERIOUSLY doubt that Governor Arnold or any other
modern-day governor would pardon any of the Manson Group. Though, I
agree it would be easier to do politically once Charley is dead. After
all, why would Arnold want to pardon someone involved with people who
offed an actress??!??

Search Strategy (on Google):
* clemency governor site:ca.gov 
* Leslie Van Houten 
* "executive clemency" site:ca.gov
* constitution site:ca.gov 
* pardon murderer "california governor" 
* pardoned murderer "california governor"
* california pardons murder 
* California "governor pardoned"
* manson victims

I hope this helps!

websearcher

thanks websearcher.
For some reason when you said "actress" in the context of prison I
thought of " Jan the actress" in the movie from 2000 entitled Animal
Factory starrin Willem Dafoe and Edward Furlong.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0204137/

I am one of the few people who actually read the Constitution of
California, back in the day when a copy was on the reference shelf of
my public library.

The California governership is among the constitutionally weaker of
the 50 states, but by no means the weakest. If Der Arnold gets
defeated for re-election, he could do the state a world of monetary
good by commuting the (what is it?) 500 to 600 or more people on death
row to life without. California, once ever so rich, is now quite poor,
and executing people is very expensive: this would save, I think, one
billion dollars (estimating that death sentences, after all appeals,
costs at least $2,000,000 to enforce).