Parole hearings are scheduled later this week in the cases of Erik and Lyle Menendez, two brothers who have spent more than 30 years in prison for the brutal 1989 murders of their parents. The hearings could result in their release.
The Menendez brothers were sentenced in 1996 to life in prison without parole. But earlier this year, a California judge reduced their prison sentences to 50 years to life, making them eligible for parole.
"For more than 35 years, they have shown sustained growth. They’ve taken full accountability," their families said in a joint statement on Wednesday. "They express sincere remorse to our family to this day and have built a meaningful life defined by purpose and service."
When are the hearings?
Erik Menendez's parole suitability hearing is scheduled for Thursday at 11:30 a.m. ET/8:30 a.m. PT; Lyle Menendez's parole suitability hearing is set for Friday, also at 11:30 a.m. ET/8:30 a.m. PT. They will each appear via videoconference from the Richard J. Donovan Correctional Facility in San Diego, where they are being held.
The hearings will be conducted by a panel of two or three board members, who will assess whether the brothers pose an “unreasonable risk of danger to society” if released, according to the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation. The panel will consider factors like criminal history, behavior in prison and statements from the brothers, family members, the district attorney’s office and the public. Hearings typically take two to three hours to complete.
They will not be televised, and no audio or video recordings are permitted. An assigned pool reporter will be allowed to observe the hearings and distribute updates during specified breaks.
The murders and the trials
Erik and Lyle Menendez killed their parents, Jose and Kitty Menendez, with shotguns at their Beverly Hills mansion on Aug. 20, 1989.
They initially denied the killings, telling police they suspected the slayings were related to Jose Menendez’s work as an entertainment executive. They were arrested in March 1990.
At trial three years later, the brothers testified they killed their parents in self-defense after years of sexual abuse by their father, about which they said their mother was aware.
Prosecutors argued that their motive for the killings was a multimillion-dollar inheritance.
They were tried twice. A mistrial was declared in 1994 due to a hung jury. In 1996, Erik and Lyle were convicted on first-degree murder charges and sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole. Many details of the alleged sexual abuse they experienced were not permitted during the retrial.
In 1998, a California appeals court upheld their convictions. Subsequent appeals to the higher courts were also denied.
The Netflix series and a fight for freedom
The case was thrust back into the public eye last year thanks to the hit Netflix drama series Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story.
Last fall, then-Los Angeles County District Attorney George Gascón recommended that the brothers be resentenced, saying, “I believe they have paid their debt to society."
Gascón said he thought that Erik and Lyle, who are now 54 and 57 years old, respectively, had rehabilitated themselves while incarcerated, earning advanced degrees, participating in self-help classes and creating various support groups for their fellow inmates. Gascón also said his office was reviewing new evidence that their attorneys said corroborated the allegations of sexual abuse.
He recommended that their sentence be reduced from life without the possibility of parole to 50 years to life, making them immediately eligible for parole under California law because they were younger than 26 when they committed the killings. (Erik was 18; Lyle was 21.)
But Gascón’s successor, Nathan Hochman, opposed resentencing, saying that the brothers had failed to take “complete responsibility” for the double murder, including their initial claim that they did not kill their parents.
"These murders were calculated, premeditated, cold-blooded killings," Hochman said in a statement on April 11. "Our position remains clear: Until the Menendez brothers finally come clean with all their lies of self-defense and suborning and attempting to suborn perjury, they are not rehabilitated and pose an unreasonable risk of danger to public safety."
In May, Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Michael Jesic reduced their sentences to 50 years to life after a resentencing hearing, which included testimony from relatives, a retired judge, a former fellow inmate and the brothers themselves.
"I committed an atrocious act," Erik Menendez told Jesic. "I have no excuse, no justification for what I did."
"I killed my mom and dad," Lyle Menendez told the judge. "I give no excuses. I take full responsibility.”
What’s next?
After the parole hearings, the board will issue a written decision recommending whether or not they should be granted parole.
If the board recommends parole be granted, the decision is subject to review by the board’s legal division and California Gov. Gavin Newsom before becoming final.
The board's chief legal counsel has up to 120 days to review the decision, according to the parole board.
If approved by the counsel, the decision will be turned over to Newsom, who has an additional 30 days to decide whether to accept, reject or modify it.
If Newsom accepts the board’s decision to grant parole, they'd be eligible for release immediately.
However, if the board denies them parole, the brothers would have to wait at least three years for the panel to reconsider their case.
Earlier this year, Newsom ordered a risk assessment investigation for the parole board to determine whether the brothers pose a public safety threat if released.
“There's no guarantee of outcome here," Newsom said on his podcast in February. "My office conducts dozens and dozens of these clemency reviews on a consistent basis, but this process simply provides more transparency, which I think is important in this case.”
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