Judge approves reducing life sentences for Menendez brothers to 50 years in prison

Almost a month ago, in mid-April, the judge gave the green light for the Menendez brothers, convicted for killing their parents 35 years ago, to continue seeking their freedom. Now, after seven months of legal proceedings, Judge Michael Jesic has granted their request for a resentencing, reducing the life term handed down to Lyle, 57, and Erik, 54, to a 50-year sentence. This gives them the possibility of being released soon through a request for parole.

The judge’s decision comes in direct opposition to the prosecutor’s recommendations. On March 10, the new Los Angeles Attorney General, Nathan Hochman, who was elected in the November 5 elections, rejected a resentencing (contrary to his predecessor, George Gascón, who reinitiated the entire case last year). For Hochman, the brothers did not deserve to go free because they had been lying for three decades about 20 key issues related to the case. Hochman cited as examples that the brothers had attempted to purchase handguns in San Diego the day before the killings, as well as attempting to establish alibis and claiming they were out of the family home the entire day of the murders. “As a full examination of the record reveals, the Menendez brothers have never come clean and admitted that they lied about their self-defense as well as suborned perjury,” a statement from Hochman’s office on March 10 read.

On Tuesday, outside the courthouse, Hochman continued to talk about the “list of lies” he referred to a few weeks ago. “They have not fully accepted their responsibility,” he insisted. Hence Lyle’s desire to now take responsibility for his actions.

The case was handed over to Judge Michael Jesic. It came with the full brunt of the prosecution’s opposition to a new sentence. However, Jesic sided with the brothers and in April he gave the green light to the Menendez family’s lawyer, Mark Geragos, to request a resentencing hearing. “They’ve waited a long time to get some justice, today is actually probably the biggest day since they’ve been incarcerated,” Geragos said last week.

Under California law, the high-profile brothers will now be eligible for parole as they committed the crimes while they were aged under 26.

The case dates back to August 20, 1989. That night, Lyle and Erik Menendez, then aged 21 and 18, killed their parents with around thirty gunshots in the living room of their home in Beverly Hills, California, while they were watching TV and eating ice cream. They initially tried to portray the crime as a mafia hit, but it was eventually proven that they had illegally purchased guns and ammunition and murdered José and Kitty Menendez, a music executive and homemaker. At their first trial, in 1993, they argued that their father had sexually abused them for years and that they acted in self-defense. Inconclusive, a mistrial was declared and the case returned to court in 1996, when they were convicted and sentenced to life in prison without parole.

The brothers spent 22 years in separate prisons until they were reunited at the Richard J. Donovan Correctional Facility in San Diego, where they have been serving their sentences together since 2018. The court decided to grant them the opportunity to be together after their efforts at reintegration. Both have earned college degrees in prison, and while Lyle is more focused on sports and acts as an intermediary and leader between inmates and prison staff, Erik has dedicated himself more to mediation and has more artistic skills.

Their case has been in the spotlight again recently in various documentaries and podcasts, but especially a Netflix series created by Ryan Murphy that tells their story, albeit with a touch of fiction. Last Friday, Cooper Koch, the actor who played Erik in the series, appeared in court.

In addition to resentencing, there are two other possible avenues for the Menendez brothers to be released. One would be through a writ of habeas corpus, in which a prisoner requests a review of a sentence in light of the discovery of new evidence. In this case, the question of whether José Menendez abused his children would be on the table. Menendez also allegedly raped a member of the Puerto Rican boy band Menudo, who testified against him in a documentary, something that would support Lyle and Erik’s testimony and could open a new trial. However, Hochman also opposes this option.

The other scenario would be that California’s highest authority, Governor Gavin Newsom, decides to review the case and pardon them. The possibility isn’t so remote. In early January, Newsom spoke about introducing changes to the parole system: “Justice may be blind, but we shouldn’t be in the dark when determining if someone is rehabilitated, safe, and ready to leave prison,” he wrote in a statement released shortly before District Attorney Hochman cast his negative vote on the resentencing. “This new process will help further ensure victims and district attorneys are part of the commutation process and improve public safety by front-loading the risk assessment like we’re doing in the Menendez case.”

Hochman, a conservative, and Newsom, a leading figure for Democrats nationwide, are political opposites. For the governor to decide to pardon the Menendez brothers would be a blow against the prosecutor on his part and would cast him in a complicated light. There are two clemency hearings, one for each brother, scheduled for June 13. It remains to be seen whether they will ultimately reach that date or, thanks to the resentencing, achieve their freedom sooner.

Sign up for our weekly newsletter to get more English-language news coverage from EL PAÍS USA Edition