State parole boards will conduct separate hearings for Erik and Lyle Menendez on June 13, then send their reports to Gov. Gavin Newsom to help him decide whether they should receive clemency.
“We will submit that report to the judge for the re-sentencing, and that will weigh in to our independent analysis of whether or not to move forward with the clemency application to support a commutation of this case,” Newsom said Tuesday on his podcast, “This Is Gavin Newsom.”
The podcast was posted one day after Los Angeles County District Attorney Nathan Hochman announced that his office will oppose the release of the brothers from state prison, where they are serving life terms without the possibility of parole for the shotgun murders of their parents more than three decades ago.
Erik Menendez, 54, and Lyle Menendez, 57, were convicted of the Aug. 20, 1989, killings of their parents, Jose and Mary Louise “Kitty” Menendez, in Beverly Hills.
Newsom called Hochman’s announcement “very significant,” but “it doesn’t fundamentally change the facts as it relates to the independent investigation in my office or the Board of Parole hearings.”
“It just changes the recommendation from … the previous DA in L.A. supporting it and one now with the current DA opposing it,” Newsom said.
Newsom said with the exception of brief clips on social media, he has not watched dramatizations of the Menendez case or documentaries on it “because I don’t want to be influenced by them.”
“I just want to be influenced by the facts,” Newsom said.