Oh I remember now.............it happened in California!
Manson originally did get the death penalty. When the Supreme Court overturned the way the death penalty had been administered in a 1972 case, people on death row automatically had their sentences downgraded to life in prison.
Not sure if his followers also got death.
But its because of a US Supreme Court ruling that we even have to have this discussion about parole in the Manson case.