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What’s next for the Menendez brothers as DA recommends their resentencing decades after their parents’ killing
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Oct
Oct
What’s next for the Menendez brothers as DA recommends their resentencing decades after their parents’ killing
More than three decades after Lyle and Erik Menendez were convicted of the murders of their parents and sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole, the brothers now see a path to their potential release.
Los Angeles District Attorney George Gascón on Friday will recommend that a judge resentence the siblings. A decision that was the culmination of a review that came after defense attorneys said in 2023 they had new evidence pointing to abuse by their father.
“I will never excuse murder, and those were brutal, premeditated murders,” Gascón told CNN Thursday. “They were appropriately sentenced at the time when they were tried. They got life without the possibility of parole. I just think that given the current state of the law and given our assessment of their behavior in prison. They deserve the opportunity to be re-evaluated and perhaps reintegrated into the community.”
A hearing on the matter could be held in 30 to 45 days, when a Los Angeles Superior Court judge will ultimately decide whether the brothers will be resentenced. Gascón said he supports the resentencing of the brothers to life with the possibility of parole. Which normally would mean 50 years to life in prison. But because the crimes happened when the brothers were under 26 years old. They would be eligible for youthful parole under California law.
Calling the brothers “model prisoners,” Gascón told CNN he believes there’s a good chance they would be paroled if the decision reaches the parole board. An attorney for one of the brothers said he hopes they’ll be home by Thanksgiving.
The reexamination of the case comes more than 35 years after the 1989 fatal shooting of Jose and Kitty Menendez in their Beverly Hills mansion. Their sons, who were 21 and 18 at the time, were arrested less than a year later. In 1990, and convicted of first-degree murder in 1996.
What led to the DA’s decision
Gascón’s decision was made just an hour before he made the announcement Thursday because there were vastly different opinions on the case within his office, he told CNN. Multiple factors went into the decision to recommend a resentencing, including that multiple family members “made it very clear that not only that there might have been sexual molestation, but they say this is a very dysfunctional, very abusive home, and it was so for many years,” Gascón said.
