Erik and Lyle Menendez approach freedom after decades in prison

More than 35 years after Erik and Lyle Menendez killed their parents in a crime that captured public attention, the brothers are on the verge of freedom after a Los Angeles judge resentenced them Tuesday to 50 years to life with immediate parole eligibility.

A resentencing hearing centered on whether the pair should continue to serve their 1996 sentence of life without parole. California’s parole board will now consider their case.

“I’m not saying they should be released, it’s not for me to decide,” Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge Michael Jesic said, according to the Associated Press.

“I do believe they’ve done enough in the past 35 years, that they should get that chance.”

The news

- Jesic reexamined the brothers’ case after ruling on April 11 that their resentencing bid could continue despite protest from newly elected District Attorney Nathan Hochman.

- On Tuesday, several of the brothers’ cousins testified that their family had forgiven Erik and Lyle, and that the pair would not pose a danger to public safety if released, the Associated Press reported.

- Hochman, who inherited the case from his predecessor, argued that the brothers have not accepted responsibility for their crime.

The case

As teenagers, the Menendez brothers lived in a Beverly Hills mansion. Their father, José Menendez, worked as a corporate executive of a film studio, according to “The Menendez Murders: The Shocking Untold Story of the Menendez Family and the Killings that Stunned the Nation” by journalist Robert Rand.

On August 20, 1989, a sobbing Lyle called 911 and said he had discovered his parents shot dead in the living room, the Los Angeles Times reported in 1993. José Menendez was shot six times, while Kitty Menendez suffered 10 gunshot wounds, including to her face.

Lyle and Erik, then 21 and 18, initially lied to police and said the mafia must have carried out the slayings over José’s business dealings. The brothers were not immediately identified as suspects, though investigators grew skeptical after the duo went on a $700 000 (R12.95 million) spending spree within months of the incident.

They were arrested in March 1990 after police learned that Erik had admitted to the crime during a taped therapy session.

Both brothers pleaded not guilty at their trial, which was among the first to be broadcast on cable TV. They said they had killed their parents in self-defense after suffering years of physical and sexual abuse by their father. Their mother, they said, had known about the abuse and chosen to ignore it.

Prosecutors said during the trial that the brothers had carried out the murders for financial gain.

The path to resentencing

The brothers’ family has sought their early release over the years, including offering what they said was new evidence to support Erik and Lyle’s claims of domestic abuse. That evidence compelled then-Los Angeles County District Attorney George Gascón to reevaluate the case and, in October, request that the brothers be resentenced to 50 years to life with the possibility of parole.

But prosecutorial support for the resentencing became muddled when Gascón lost reelection in November. Hochman, after vowing to review the case, has taken the stance that the brothers are not fit for rehabilitation and should not be released.

Despite Hochman’s objections, Jesic allowed the brothers’ resentencing bid to continue. If he grants Gascón’s recommendation, Lyle and Erik would become immediately eligible for parole under California law because they were younger than 26 when the killings occurred.

Why the case still resonates

The case has experienced a surge of public interest over the years, including with the release of the 2024 documentary The Menendez Brothers and the Netflix series Monsters. That media attention has elevated the Menendez family’s highly publicised campaign for the brothers’ release.

Supporters argue that a sexual abuse case would be treated more empathetically today than in the 1990s. In October, Kim Kardashian argued in an op-ed for NBC News that there was little public awareness of male sexual abuse at the time of the brothers’ trial.

“Had this crime been committed and trialed today,” she wrote, “I believe the outcome would have been dramatically different.”