Menendez brothers clear legal hurdle in bid for release
Jaimie Ding |
Erik and Lyle Menendez will have a new shot at freedom after 35 years behind bars for murdering their parents, a judge has ruled.
Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge Michael Jesic reduced the brothers’ sentences from life without parole to 50 years to life. They’re now eligible for parole under California’s youthful offender law because they committed the crime under the age of 26. The state parole board must still decide whether to release them from prison.
“I’m not saying they should be released, it’s not for me to decide,” Judge Jesic said. “I do believe they’ve done enough in the past 35 years, that they should get that chance.”
The brothers did not show any emotion during most of the testimony as they appeared via video, but chuckled when one of their cousins, Diane Hernandez, told court that Erik Menendez received A+ grades in all of his classes during his most recent semester in college.
A Los Angeles judge is presiding over the hearing before deciding whether they should be released after serving nearly 30 years in prison for the double murder of their parents. He said on Tuesday that prosecutors must prove that if released, the brothers still pose a risk of committing a violent crime again.
If he shortens their sentences, the brothers would still need approval from the state’s parole board to get out of prison. They could then potentially go free on time served.
They were sentenced in 1996 to life in prison without the possibility of parole for murdering their father, Jose Menendez, and mother, Kitty Menendez, in their Beverly Hills home in 1989. The brothers were 18 and 21 at the time of the killings. While defence attorneys argued the brothers acted out of self-defence after years of sexual abuse by their father, prosecutors said the brothers killed their parents for a multimillion-dollar inheritance.
The case has captured the public’s attention for decades and in 2024, the Netflix drama Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story and documentary The Menendez Brothers brought new attention to the case. Supporters of the brothers have flown in from across the country to attend rallies and hearings in the past few months.
The defence began by calling Ana Maria Baralt, a cousin of Erik and Lyle, who testified that the brothers have repeatedly expressed remorse for their actions.
“We all, on both sides of the family, believe that 35 years is enough,” Baralt said. “They are universally forgiven by our family.”
Another cousin, Tamara Goodell, said she had recently taken her 13-year-old son to meet the brothers in prison, and that they would contribute a lot of good to the world if released.
Hernandez, who also testified during Erik and Lyle’s first trial, spoke about the abuse she witnessed in the Menendez household when she lived with them and the so-called “hallway rule”.
“When Jose was with one of the boys … you couldn’t even go up the stairs to be on the same floor,” Hernandez said of the father.
Attorneys for the brothers must prove they have been rehabilitated in prison and deserve a lesser sentence of 50 years to life. That would make them eligible for parole under California’s youthful offender law because they committed the crime under the age of 26.
The previous LA County District Attorney George Gascón had opened the door to possible freedom for the brothers in 2024 by asking a judge to reduce their sentences. His office said the case would’ve been handled differently today due to modern understandings of sexual abuse and trauma, and the brothers’ rehabilitation over three decades in prison.
But the current district attorney Nathan Hochman said on Tuesday that he believes the brothers are not ready for re-sentencing because “they have not come clean” about their crimes. His office also has said it does not believe they were sexually abused.
AP
