LOS ANGELES (CNS) - Thirty-six years after they gunned down their parents in their Beverly Hills home, Erik and Lyle Menendez are set to appear before a state parole board panel in separate hearings -- Erik Thursday and Lyle Friday.
Erik Menendez, 54, and Lyle Menendez, 57, have spent about 35 years behind bars without the possibility of parole for the Aug. 20, 1989, shotgun killings of Jose and Mary Louise "Kitty" Menendez. The Menendez brothers claim the killings were committed after years of abuse, including alleged sexual abuse by their father.
In May, Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge Michael Jesic resentenced them to 50 years to life in prison, making them immediately eligible for parole consideration because they were younger than 26 when the crime occurred.
The judge said then that he was convinced the brothers deserved a new sentence due to all the work they did in prison on behalf of the inmate population. The judge also noted unexpected letters he had received in support of the brothers from correction officers, including a lieutenant.
Erik is set for a parole suitability hearing Thursday at Richard J. Donovan Correctional Facility in San Diego, while his brother is set for a parole suitability hearing at the same prison on Friday.
If the parole board recommends one or both brothers for parole, the issue will then be forwarded to Gov. Gavin Newsom, who will have 90 days to review the matter and could reject the parole grant. Attorneys for the brothers have also submitted a request for Newsom to consider granting clemency to the pair.
"As always, our family remains cautiously optimistic, grounding ourselves in the reality that California's parole process is incredibly rigorous, with low grant rates," the brothers' family said in a statement issued Wednesday ahead of the hearings. "We respect that and know Erik and Lyle are prepared for that level of scrutiny.
"For more than 35 years, they have shown sustained growth. They've taken full accountability. They express sincere remorse to our family to this day and have built a meaningful life defined by purpose and service. Something that has really stayed with us, especially as we near the parole hearings, is what Judge Jesic said during resentencing: that while Erik and Lyle have a stellar record, it was the letters of support from individuals who had never spoken up for an incarcerated person before that impacted him most. It's a reminder that no paper file can fully capture a person's character. But we see it. Correctional staff see it. Now, we hope the parole commissioners will see the same."
L.A. County District Attorney Nathan Hochman, however, has opposed any form of release for the brothers, saying they have not taken accountability for the crime.
"The Menendez brothers have never fully accepted responsibility for the horrific murders of their parents, instead continuing to promote a false narrative of self-defense that was rejected by the jury decades ago," Hochman said in a statement Wednesday.
"We have consistently opposed their release because they have not demonstrated full insight into their crimes or shown that they have been fully rehabilitated, and therefore continue to pose a risk to society. We will evaluate our final position based on the evidence presented at the hearing.
"The gravity of the murders cannot be minimized without undermining confidence in the justice system and how it treats other serious cases. As Governor Newsom recently made clear in denying parole to Sirhan Sirhan, the assassin of Robert F. Kennedy, failure to exhibit full insight and responsibility is a critical factor in determining parole eligibility. The same principle applies here."
Hochman's office also recently filed paperwork opposing a separate request by the brothers that they be granted a new trial. The request was made in a 2023 writ of habeas corpus filed by their attorneys.
In that 2023 petition, attorneys for the brothers pointed to two new pieces of evidence they contend corroborate the brothers' allegations of long- term sexual abuse at the hands of their father -- a letter allegedly written by Erik Menendez to his cousin Andy Cano in early 1989 or late 1988, and recent allegations by Roy Rosselló, a former member of the boy band Menudo, that he too was sexually abused by Jose Menendez as a teenager.
Attorneys Mark Geragos and Cliff Gardner, representing the brothers, wrote that the new evidence "not only shows that Jose Menendez was very much a violent and brutal man who would sexually abuse children, but it strongly suggests that -- in fact -- he was still abusing Erik Menendez as late as December 1988 -- just as the defense had argued all along."
The attorneys added that "newly discovered evidence directly supports the defense presented at trial and just as directly undercuts the state's case."
But Hochman said the defense's filing "does not come close to meeting the factual or legal standard to warrant a new trial"
"The overwhelming evidence of the Menendez brothers' premeditated, deliberate, willful and brutal murders of their parents the night of Aug. 20, 1989, leading to their convictions for first-degree murder with special circumstances, is not in any way challenged by evidence that is not `new' or `material' or `credible' or `presented without substantial delay' that would more likely than not have changed the outcome of this case," the district attorney said.
Hochman said the brothers maintained throughout their trials that they acted in self-defense, and that the latest claims about new evidence amount to nothing more than a "Hail Mary" effort to obtain a new trial.
In the prosecution's filing, Deputy District Attorney Seth Carmack wrote, "There are few murder cases in which the evidence of planning and premeditation is as stark as that presented in this case. Petitioners confessed on tape to murdering their parents, revealing the extent of their forethought and deliberation."
Carmack cited a "pattern of deliberate deceit," in which the two "conspired and planned to kill their parents by, among other things, driving over 120 miles to San Diego to purchase shotguns and ammunition using false identification and a false address" and setting up a "pre-planned alibi" hours before they killed their parents.
The prosecutor added, "While sexual abuse is abhorrent and may be a motive for murder, it does not justify murder and does not negate overwhelming evidence of planning, deliberation and premeditation."
The brothers' first trial ended with jurors unable to reach verdicts, deadlocking between first-degree murder and lesser charges including manslaughter. The second trial, which began in October 1995 and lacked much of the testimony centered on allegations of sexual abuse by Jose Menendez, ended with both brothers being convicted of first-degree murder and conspiracy.
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