Los Angeles D.A. George Gascón will seek a reduced sentence for Lyle and Erik Menendez, the brothers who murdered their parents, Jose and Kitty, in 1989.
Gascón’s office will ask a Los Angeles judge to lower their sentences from life without the possibility of parole to 50 years to life. If approved, the Menendez brothers would be eligible for parole immediately.
At a press conference, Gascón said he had come to his decision after “careful review.”
“I came to a place, where I believe under the law resentencing is appropriate,” he said. “They have been in prison for nearly 35 years. I believe that they have paid their debt to society.”
A judge must still sign off the D.A.’s request, though the D.A.’s position will get considerable weight. If the lower sentence is approved, the Menendez brothers would then have to go before the state Board of Parole Hearings to determine whether they are suitable for release.
Gascón said that there was a dispute within his office about whether to seek resentencing, and that prosecutors from his office may wish to speak against it at a hearing. A status conference on the request must be scheduled within 30 days.
“It can happen quickly, if the judge is ready to place the matter on the calendar,” said Bess Stiffelman, an attorney who handles post-conviction matters in L.A. “It’s likely, if the D.A. makes the recommendation, the judge would accept it.”
The judge also would have to give Menendez family members the opportunity to be heard. Numerous relatives have said they support releasing the brothers, but Kitty’s brother, Milton Andersen, opposes release.
Andersen’s attorney, Kathleen Cady, has criticized Gascón for failing to keep Andersen informed of developments.
“Mr. Andersen believes that justice was served when the jury found Erik and Lyle Menendez guilty of multiple murders for financial gain and the judge sentenced them to life without the possibility of parole,” Cady wrote in brief to the court on Tuesday.
The judge could deny the request if he finds that the brothers pose a risk of harm to the community, but that is a high threshold.
Gascón, who is facing long odds for reelection on Nov. 5, has been publicly mulling the case for the last few weeks. At an earlier press conference and in multiple national TV interviews, he said that the brothers appeared to have been well behaved in prison. He also said he was taking seriously the claim that the brothers had been sexually abused by their father.
“Given the totality of the circumstances, I don’t think they deserve to be in prison until they die,” he told ABC News.
The Association of Deputy District Attorneys, which represents prosecutors, blasted Gascón for his “obsession” with the Menendez case on Wednesday, saying he was “driven by his desire for television appearances.”
“Throughout his disastrous tenure as DA, Gascón has consistently prioritized celebrity cases over the rights of crime victims, showing more interest in being in the spotlight than in upholding justice,” said Michele Hanisee, the association’s president.
If defeated on Nov. 5, Gascón would remain in office until his successor, Nathan Hochman, is sworn in on Dec. 2. If the request is still pending at that point, Hochman could move to withdraw it — though the judge would not have to allow him to do so.
The announcement was made after years of legal wrangling, and attempts by the brothers to bring forth purported new evidence in the case.
The Netflix series “Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story” — co-created by Ryan Murphy and Ian Brennan — was released on Sept. 19, and immediately became a viral sensation, bringing renewed attention to the case. Netflix’s companion documentary, “The Menendez Brothers,” which includes interviews with Lyle and Erik, immediately went to No. 1 on Netflix’s Top 10 after its release on Oct. 7.
At an Oct. 16 press conference called by members of the Menendez family and the brothers’ attorneys, they made an appeal to Gascón to consider new evidence, which includes a letter Erik wrote to a cousin about being abused by his father.
The defense, led by attorney Mark Geragos, also argued that testimony from Roy Rossello, a member of the boy band Menudo — who has accused Jose Menendez of sexually assaulting him when he was 13 or 14 — would have changed the outcome of the trial. Last year, Rossello’s claims were spotlighted in a Peacock docuseries ““Menendez + Menudo: Boys Betrayed.” The Menendez brothers were also interviewed from prison for that docuseries.
The Menendez brothers were tried twice. The first trial began in July 1993 — with two separate juries — and became must-see-TV on Court TV. In January 1994, both juries said they were deadlocked, and a mistrial was declared. In the second trial, cameras were excluded. The brothers were convicted by a single jury of first degree murder in March 1996, and sentenced that July to life in prison without parole.
Though Geragos has criticized “Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story,” calling it a “caricature,” he acknowledged that the backlash to the show helped bring attention to the case. High-profile advocates such as Kim Kardashian also demanded the Menendez brothers be released.
