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**Trigger Warning: This article discusses sexual abuse **
UPDATE: The Menendez brothers have had their sentence reduced, making them eligible for parole.
Despite objection from Los Angeles’ new District Attorney, Nathan Hochman, who previously filed a motion to withdraw the resentencing request, a judge had determined that Erik and Lyle Menendez, are to have their sentence reduced from life-without-parole to 50 years to life.
The resentencing update means that the Menendez brothers are immediately eligible for parole. However, as is the judicial process, Lyle and Erik will still have to go before a parole board to determine whether they can be released from prison.
Even if they are successful in their bid for freedom, the final decision still lies with Govenor Gavin Newsom, who could reject their release.
More updates to come.
The Long Road To Freedom For The Menendez Brothers
The Menendez brothers are currently serving life without parole for the 1989 murders of their parents, Jose and Kitty Menendez, but were hopeful of a retrial based on new evidence and a renewed focus on the case.
Newly appointed D.A., Hochman, previously announced that his office had filed a motion seeking court approval to withdraw the resentencing request for Erik and Lyle in March.
Speaking in a press conference Monday 10 March, 2025, Hochman expressed his concerns over the Menendez brothers’ failure to acknowledge their alleged “lies” and claimed their self-defence plea was just one of the supposed fabrications.
“For now, while the Menendez brothers persist in telling these lies, and lies over 30 years about their self-defence defence, and persist in insisting that they did not subordinate perjury or attempt to suborn perjury, then they do not meet the standards for resentencing,” he said.
“Our position is that they shouldn’t get out of jail,” he continued.
The motion outlined a brief overview of the “shifting stories and deception” Hochman and his office believed to be reason for a retrial’s dismissal.
Court documents also pointed to a perceived lack of responsibility on the brothers’ behalf, an insight that Hochman and his office state has direct impact on their ability to safety return to society.
“The prior motion failed to examine at all how the continuity of failure of the Menendez brothers to exhibit insight into and accept full responsibility for their lies of self-defence, of their father purportedly violently raping Lyle’s girlfriend, of their mother purportedly trying to poison the family, of their attempts to get a handgun the day before the murders, and other lies impacts their risk of danger to the community and justifies resentencing,” the documents read.
A court hearing for Erik and Lyle Menendez was originally set for March 20-21, 2025, where newly discovered evidence was to be brought before the district attorney’s office following a petition by the Menendez brothers. This will now take place this week on April 17 and 18.
The recent shift in office meant the incoming La County District Attorney needed more time to familiarise himself with the case, previously announcing he would be reviewing the previous office’s submission, before making his findings known earlier this week.
Responding to the announcement, the Menendez family issued a statement that claimed Hochman and his office were playing “political games,” and holding Erik, Lyle and the family “hostage.”
“They have apologised for their actions, which were the results of José’s sexual abuse and Kitty’s enablement,” the family’s statement said.
“They have apologised for the horrific actions they took. They have apologised to us. And, they have demonstrated their atonement through actions that have helped improve countless lives. Yet, DA Hochman is effectively asking for them to publicly apologise to a checklist of actions they took in a state of shock and fear.”
The update more than 28 years after the Menendez brothers were convicted of murdering their parents, amid renewed focus following the success of Ryan Murphy’s series Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menenzes Story on Netflix.
New Evidence In The Menendez Brothers Case
In a press conference on Thursday October 4, 2024, then-Los Angeles District Attorney George Gascón announced that new evidence had been discovered, making note of the brothers’ allegations of molestation at the hands of their father, José Menendez.
“We have been given evidence. We have been given a photocopy of a letter that allegedly was sent by one of the brothers to another family member talking about him being the victim of molestation,” Gascón said. “We’ve also got evidence that was provided by the defense, by his lawyers, that one of the members of the Menudo band alleged that he was molested by the father.”
One of the key factors in the potential retrial of the Menendez brothers has been the unsurfacing of new evidence, namely a letter sent by Erik to his cousin Andy that could affirm the claims the men had been victims of abuse at the hands of their father.
Further details about the contents of the letter were revealed in an episode of 60 Minutes on November 24th, 2024, where Erik writes that he had been “trying to avoid dad”.
“It’s still happening Andy. But it’s worse for me now,” the letter reads. “Every night I stay up thinking he might come in. I’m afraid. He’s crazy.”
Why is this letter only coming to light now, you may ask. Well, Andy passed away 15 years ago, but journalist Robert Rand, who has covered the case since day one, discovered the papers when invited to search through the cousin’s belongings on a fact-finding mission. The letter was written just eight months before the murders.
“As soon as I read that paragraph, I thought to myself, this could have a major impact on the case,” Rand told interviewer Tara Brown.
Menendez Lawyer And Family Petition DA
After the news that the district attorney’s office may recommend resentencing the Menendez brothers, members of Erik and Lyle’s family gathered for a press conference in the hopes of convincing Gascón to announce his decision.
Around two dozen family members were joined by supporters of the Menendez brothers, where defence lawyer Mark Geragos called for a revised sentence.
Geragos spoke of the treatment the brother’s received during their trial, stating: ‘If they were the Menendez sisters they wouldn’t be in custody.’
The sentiment was echoed by Kitty Menendez’s sister, Joan Andersen VanderMolen, who described the layers of suffering her family has experienced.
‘Their actions, while tragic, were the desperate response of two boys trying to survive the unspeakable cruelty of their father,’ says Joan, who has always been an advocate for her nephews, most recently speaking with Vanity Fair about her nephews pain.
‘The truth is, Lyle and Erik were failed by the very people who should have protected them—their parents, the system, and society at large.”
A petition to support the brothers’ resentencing and release was also announced, and in addition to the press conference, Kyle and Erik’s relatives placed a full page ad in the LA Times, calling for ‘Justice for Erik and Lyle’.
The brothers’ attorney, Mark Geragos, also provided Gascon with further evidence – the letter Erik wrote to his cousin in which he revealed that he was still being raped by his father.
Is There An Appeal For Lyle And Erik?
While the brothers were originally trialled separately, resulting in mistrials, the pair were then tried together which lead to their conviction. At the time, Lyle and Erik were sentenced to life imprisonment without the possibility of parole.
A petition to review the case in 1998 and 1999 was declined after both the California Court of Appeal and the Supreme Court of California upheld Erik and Lyle’s convictions.
The brothers maintain to this day that they were the victims of a lifetime of alleged sexual abuse at the hands of their father – claims which were not permitted to be presented as evidence during their trial.
In May 2023, Erik and Lyle’s legal team requested a new hearing, following evidence of their father’s alleged molestation of singer Roy Rosselló of the Puerto Rican boy band Menudo.
As the dramatised Netflix series gained traction, the streamer went on to release The Menendez Brothers documentary in quick succession. Both stories have garnered a huge swell in discourse around the brothers, with advocates accusing prosecutors of attempting to deny Erik and Lyle’s claims of sexual abuse based on gender.
Gascón responded to these concerns in his statement, where he said unequivocally that “both men and women can be the victims of sexual assault.”
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