Though Los Angeles County District Attorney George Gascón has announced his recommendation that Erik and Lyle Menendez be resentenced and immediately eligible for parole, multiple steps would be needed that could take months, if not longer, for their actual release.
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The brothers were convicted in the 1989 murders of their parents at their family mansion in Beverly Hills.
Gascón could have opted to recommend that the brothers be resentenced for manslaughter, which could have allowed them to be released immediately. Instead, he is requesting they be resentenced for murder to life with the possibility of parole.
If a judge approves that, the brothers would then be eligible for parole, and the case would go up before the state parole board.
Gascón said Thursday that due to their ages at the time of the crime, the brothers would be automatically eligible for parole.
The district attorney cited new evidence of alleged sexual abuse by the brothers’ father in coming to his recommendation, a decision he said was made shortly before he spoke with reporters at a news conference on Thursday, Oct. 24.
Should a judge decide in favor of resentencing, the parole board would have to determine the date they would become eligible for a parole hearing, with that hearing occurring no less than six months out “as required by notice provisions and other mandates,” said Pedro Calderon Michel, deputy press secretary of the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation.
Finally, should a parole board approve the brothers’ release, Governor Gavin Newsom could reject the board’s decision.
But even the governor’s decision could be appealed.
Erik Menendez, now 53, and Lyle Menendez, now 56, have been in state prison since 1996 after they were convicted in Los Angeles Superior Court of two counts of murder and conspiracy to commit a crime in the killings of Jose and Mary Louise “Kitty” Menendez.
They were 18 and 21 years old at the time of the murders.
While Gascón made the recommendation for re-sentencing, he admitted Thursday there were dissenters within his office and anticipated that some of them may appear in court to argue the recommendation, saying “they have a right to do so.”
Gascón is in the midst of a bid for re-election and the timing of his decision has raised questions for some, including his opponent, Nathan Hochman.
“By releasing it now, Gascón has cast a cloud over the fairness and impartiality of his decision, allowing Angelenos to question whether the decision was correct and just or just another desperate political move by a D.A. running a losing campaign scrambling to grab headlines through a made-for-TV decision,” Hochman said in a statement following Gascon’s announcement. “Angelenos and everyone involved deserve better.”
It is not clear what would happen to the resentencing recommendation if Gascón loses his job in the Nov. 5 election.
The case gained renewed public interest after the release of two documentaries, including one from Netflix, “Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story.”
Prosecutors said the killings were financially motivated, with the brothers going on lavish spending sprees after the killings.
The brothers never denied they committed the killings, but contended they were repeatedly sexually assaulted by their father and feared for their lives.
A first trial ended with jurors unable to reach verdicts. They were convicted after a second trial in 1995 which lacked much of the testimony centered on the allegations of sexual abuse.