Erik and Lyle Menendez will get a new day in court Dec. 11, when Los Angeles County Dist. Atty. George Gascón will ask a judge to resentence them in their parents’ brutal murders — opening the possibility that they will be set free after 35 years behind bars.
Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge Michael Jesic set that date for a hearing in Van Nuys on the district attorney’s proposal to change the brothers’ sentences in the 1989 shotgun killings of Jose and Kitty Menendez inside their Beverly Hills home. After a mistrial, the pair were convicted of murder with special circumstances in a second trial in 1996, making them ineligible for parole.
Gascón said last week that he would seek to have them resentenced on a simple murder charge, a change that would make them eligible for parole because the brothers committed the killings when they were under 26 years old.
According to their attorney, Mark Geragos, the brothers will also have a hearing on a habeas filing on Nov. 25.
Geragos said he would ask the judge at the November hearing to sentence them for manslaughter — a move that could trigger an immediate release. Geragos said he wants the brothers home for Thanksgiving and would also pursue clemency with Gov. Gavin Newsom, who acknowledged on a podcast last weekend that he was reviewing the matter and mentioned the Netflix docudrama “Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story.”
“I met with the team that put the series together about nine months ago, and they gave me a heads-up,” Newsom said. “They said, ‘Watch and see what happens after this series is released, because it’s going to generate a lot more conversation around whether these guys should be released or resentenced.’ And here we are, fast-tracked not so many months later.”
Last week’s announcement by Gascón drew praise from the brothers’ celebrity supporters and loved ones — and condemnation from critics who think it was designed to boost his flagging reelection bid. But as Gascón made clear during a news conference, the brothers’ hopes of release still hinge on decisions from others, including the judge, the state parole board, Newsom and the potential inauguration of a new district attorney come December.
In a 57-page motion made public late Thursday, Gascón’s office argued that the brothers no longer threatened public safety and should be released, given their exemplary behavior while in custody.
Both brothers got married and obtained college degrees in prison, according to the motion, and started programs that benefit other inmates, including meditation groups and a “green space” project. Corrections staff rarely had to discipline them, with only one allegation of violence being made against either brother in their nearly 30 years in prison, according to the motion.
In recent months, much of the attention on the brothers’ case has focused on a habeas motion seeking to overturn their convictions. Geragos put forward new documentation to corroborate the brothers’ claims that the killings were motivated by years of sexual abuse at the hands of their father — not, as prosecutors argued at their trial, by the brothers’ desire to gain access to their inheritance early.
But legal experts say the brothers might have a more direct path to freedom through resentencing.
The case was assigned this week to Jesic, a judge in the Van Nuys courthouse who is a former prosecutor. He could immediately grant the petition, but it’s more likely he would hold a hearing at which many of the family’s loved ones and prosecutors opposed to Gascón’s decision could speak.
Gascón acknowledged Thursday there was not “universal agreement” on the case in his office, with some prosecutors opposed to resentencing the brothers. Another faction in the office had pushed Gascón to seek to resentence the brothers to manslaughter, which would have made them eligible for immediate release if the judge granted the petition, according to two sources with direct knowledge of Gascón’s thinking.
The sources requested anonymity in order to discuss the case candidly. Experts said that move might have been a bridge too far for the judge and backfired.
If Jesic grants the petition, the state parole board would then weigh in.
As of Oct. 23, the board had granted parole in approximately 31% of the cases it heard this year in which it rendered a decision, according to California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation data.
Even then, Newsom could reject the parole board’s findings. Under California law, the governor can block the board’s decision to grant parole if he finds evidence that the brothers’ release posed an “unreasonable risk to the public.”
A spokesperson for Newsom referred questions about the Menendez brothers to the corrections department.
Gascón’s decision could also be upended if he is no longer in office by the time the process plays out in court. Some polls show Gascón’s challenger in the November election, former federal prosecutor Nathan Hochman, leading by as much as 30 points among likely voters. Hochman has not taken a public position on the Menendez case, but has said he intends to review the decision if he displaces Gascón. If Gascón loses his bid for reelection on Nov. 5, Hochman would be in office on Dec. 11.
“In that particular case, I would analyze the thousands of pages of confidential prison records, the transcripts from both trials and the voluminous exhibits, as well as speak to the prosecutors, law enforcement, defense attorneys, experts and victims’ family members,” Hochman said in a statement. “Only at that point would I be in the position to properly evaluate whether the resentencing request is correct.”
Times staff writer Salvador Hernandez contributed to this report.
