Lyle and Erik Menendez are heading to their long-awaited parole hearing, marking a huge step forward in their push to be released after 35 years behind bars.
Here’s what you need to know:
The parole process
Erik Menendez’s parole hearing is set for Thursday and Lyle Menendez’s hearing will be on Friday. After the hearings conclude, the parole board will determine whether the brothers are suitable for parole.
The brothers’ relatives said they know the parole process is “rigorous,” but that they’re “cautiously optimistic.”
Erik Menendez and his brother Lyle (R) listen during a pre-trial hearing, Dec. 29, 1992, in Los Angeles after the two pleaded innocent in the August 1989 shotgun deaths of their parents, Jose and Mary Louise Menendez.
Vince Bucci/AFP via Getty Images
“For more than 35 years, they have shown sustained growth. They’ve taken full accountability,” the Menendez brothers’ family said in a statement on Wednesday. “They express sincere remorse to our family to this day and have built a meaningful life defined by purpose and service.”
After the parole board’s rulings, the final decisions on parole will then go to California Gov. Gavin Newsom to approve, deny or modify the decision, according to the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office. If granted parole, they’d be eligible for release immediately after the decision is finalized, which takes about five months, according to the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation. If parole is denied, the denial could be for either three, five, seven, 10 or 15 years, according to the department.
“Newsom can also exercise his clemency power to pardon or release the Menendez brothers at any time,” the DA’s office said.
The brothers’ long push for release
Lyle Menendez, now 57, and Erik Menendez, now 54, were initially sentenced to life without the possibility of parole for the 1989 murders of their parents, Jose and Kitty Menendez.
Lyle Menendez was 21 and Erik Menendez was 18 at the time of the crime. They said they committed the murders in self-defense after years of abuse by their father.
LA County DA Nathan Hochman has fought against their release, calling the brothers’ claims of self-defense part of a litany of “lies.” But the brothers have the support of over 20 family members in their efforts to be freed.
Erik Menendez with his attorney Leslie Abramson and his brother Lyle Menendez in Los Angeles, March 9, 1994.
Ted Soqui/Sygma via Getty Images
A new sentence
This May, Judge Michael Jesic resentenced Erik and Lyle Menendez to 50 years to life in prison, which follows the recommendation made in October by then-LA County DA George Gascón. This new sentence makes them immediately eligible for parole.
The judge noted he was moved by the supportive letters from prison guards and was amazed by the work the brothers had accomplished to better the lives of their fellow inmates.
This combination of two booking photos provided by the California Department of Corrections shows Erik Menendez, left, and Lyle Menendez.
CDCR
The brothers, who watched the resentencing hearing from prison, gave their own statements to the judge, admitting their guilt.
“I killed my mom and dad,” Lyle Menendez told Jesic. “I give no excuses.”
Lyle Menendez admitted to committing perjury by lying in court in the ’90s and he apologized to his family for years of lies and the shock and grief of the crimes.
Lyle Menendez, Oct. 10, 2024.
CDCR
Erik Menendez also admitted to lying for years and apologized.
“I committed an atrocious act,” he told the judge. “… No justification for what I did.”
Erik Menendez added that he’s “come a long way on this path” of redemption and said, “I will not stop trying to make a difference.”
Erik Menendez, Oct. 10, 2024.
CDCR
Bid for a new trial
Meanwhile, the brothers are pursing another path separate from the parole process.
In 2023, they submitted a habeas corpus petition to try to get another trial based on new evidence not originally presented in court.
The petition presents two pieces of new evidence. One is allegations from a former member of the boy band Menudo, who revealed in the 2023 docuseries “Menendez + Menudo: Boys Betrayed” that he was raped by Jose Menendez. The second is a letter Erik Menendez wrote to his cousin eight months before the murders detailing his alleged abuse; the cousin testified about the alleged abuse at trial, but the letter — which would have corroborated the cousin’s testimony — wasn’t unearthed until several years ago, according to the brothers’ attorney.
This month, Hochman filed a response to the habeas corpus petition, stating that he “concluded that this petition does not come close to meeting the factual or legal standard to warrant a new trial.”
“The central defense of the Menendez brothers at trial has always been self-defense, not sexual abuse. The jury rejected this self-defense defense in finding them guilty of the horrific murders they perpetrated; five different appellate state and federal courts have affirmed those convictions, and nothing in the so-called ‘new’ evidence challenges any of those determinations,” Hochman said in a statement. “Our opposition to this ‘Hail Mary’ effort to obtain a new trial over 30 years later makes clear that justice, the facts, and the law demand the convictions stand.”
