SAN FRANCISCO, Sept. 22 — Convicted murderer Charles “Tex” Watson will receive parole review every three years, rather than annually, as the former Charles Manson follower had asked, a federal court ruled.

“A reprieve from the gallows with the chance of parole every three years” does not put Watson at a disadvantage, the 9th U.S. Circuit Court ruled Thursday.

The decision overruled an earlier finding by the same court, which said about a year ago that the California Prison Board’s 1983 decision to delay Watson’s parole hearing for the three-year maximum unlawfully applied a law enacted after Watson committed his crimes.

Watson and several female followers of cult leader Charles Manson were convicted of seven bloody slayings in Southern California in August 1969, including the killing actress Sharon Tate, who was eight months pregnant.

In 1971, when Watson was sentenced to death, the law guaranteed only “periodic” parole review.

One year later, the state Supreme Court abolished the death penalty and Watson’s sentence was reduced to life in prison. But in July 1977, the Determinate Sentencing Law took effect in California, guaranteeing annual parole hearings to prisoners who didn’t have a parole release date to have annual parole hearings.

That gave Watson, now incarcerated at the California Men’s Colony at San Luis Obispo, a chance for yearly parole hearings, but a 1981 amendment to the Determinate Sentencing Law made an exception for inmates, such as Watson, who have been convicted of more than one crime involving the taking of a life.