Los Angeles County District Attorney George Gascón announced on Thursday, Oct. 24, that his office will recommended that Erik and Lyle Menendez, who are serving life sentences for the murders of their parents Jose and Kitty more than 30 years ago, be resentenced.
The announcement from Gascón came shortly after nearly two dozen family members of brothers Lyle, 56, and Erik, 53 called for their release from prison; the family also joined Gascón for the announcement at the Hall of Justice in downtown L.A. Gascón, who noted that the brothers have been behind bars for nearly 35 years, said at the news conference: “We are going to recommend to the court that the life without the possibility of parole be removed and they would be sentenced for murder. I believe that they have paid their debt to society. The final decision will be made by the judge.”
A murder sentence would 50 years to life; but because they brothers were both under 26 years old at the time of the crimes they would be eligible for parole immediately. The judge will need to make a final determination if the Menendez brothers should be resentenced, which could possibly lead to their release after decades in prison. The judge is expected to make that determination within 30 days.
Lyle was 21 and Erik was 18 when they fatally shot their parents in their Beverly Hills, Calif., home on Aug. 20, 1989. According to the brothers, the killings were a result of years of sexual abuse by Jose, which they also claimed was ignored by their mother, Kitty. Three years after their first trial ended in a deadlock, the siblings were convicted in 1996 of the first-degree murders and sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole.
The case again gained momentum in May 2023 when attorneys for the brothers filed a habeas corpus petition with the Los Angeles County Superior Court, citing new evidence — a newly discovered letter Erik wrote to his now-deceased cousin Andy Cano describing his father’s alleged sexual abuse months before the killings; as well as sexual abuse allegations against Jose Menendez by Roy Rosselló, a former member of the boy band Menudo. Rosselló claims that Jose Menendez raped him in the 1980s.
The brothers’ attorney, Mark Geragos, told ABC News that the brothers were model prisoners who worked tirelessly while incarcerated to reform themselves with no expectation they’d be released. Gascón said that the brothers focused on “creating groups to deal with how to address untreated trauma, creating groups to deal with other inmates that have physical disabilities and may be treated differently, even in one case, Lyle negotiating for other inmates as to the conditions that they live under during prison. All this was done by two young people. Now they’re not as young. They had no hopes of ever getting out of prison.”
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